The sons of Abraham Isaac and Ishmael.
One short line names both of Abraham's sons: the son God promised and the son born first. The order of the two names, and the order of the families listed after them, is where commentators find the meaning.
The verse names Isaac before Ishmael. Yet the verses that follow trace Ishmael's family first. One writer sees the same order earlier in the chapter, with Shem:
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. But in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, comes first in the list (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh.
The same pattern shapes the whole opening section of the book:
In the nine chapters that make up this opening section we have the principle that the apostle Paul stated long afterwards: not first the spiritual but the natural, then the spiritual. Even the general genealogy of 1 Chronicles 1 follows this divine purpose.
There is a reason for the delay. God does not unfold grace until the other line has been tried and has failed:
God has ordained it so. The whole question of man's responsibility had to be settled before the Man of God's purposes of grace would appear. In fact, grace could not be unfolded until it was first made clear how deep man had fallen when left to himself. This great truth is the foundation of all Scripture. All Scripture presents man's ruin, which nothing can repair, as the basis of the gospel of grace.
Both men were Abraham's sons. Yet God's choice, not birth order, settled which son carried the promise:
The apostle quotes the saying recorded in Genesis 21:12: "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." His inspired comment on this is: "it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring." The flesh can produce nothing except what is flesh… God knew it was a corrupt source, and so a source of nothing but corruption. That is why He passed by Ishmael, the child of the flesh. His election rested on Isaac, the child of promise, the son whose origin lay in the resurrection power of God, shown in His promise years before.
(The older translation Hole used reads, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called.")
Ishmael went on to a large future. His standing never changed:
It was not Ishmael changed, but it was Isaac born. The son of the slave woman could never be anything else. He might become a great nation. He might live in the wilderness and become an archer. He might become the father of twelve princes. But he was the son of the slave woman all the while. On the other hand, no matter how weak and despised Isaac might be, he was the son of the free woman. His position and character, his standing and prospects, were all from the Lord.
Abraham had sons by Keturah as well. Where the chapter puts them carries the same message:
In verse 32 the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine, are listed as we find them in Genesis 25:1-4. In our chapter they come after Ishmael's descendants (vv. 28-31), to show that they too belong to the line according to the flesh.
Readers often skip these chapters as bare names. One commentator answers the objection head-on:
But someone may still challenge us like this: "Do you believe that the long string of names in the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles — those lists of family lines — were inspired by God? Were they written for our learning? And if so, what are we to learn from them?" We say without hesitation that we believe, with reverence, that God inspired all of these. And we have no doubt that their value, interest and importance will be proved in full later on, in the history of the people they especially apply to.
As to what we are to learn from those records of family lines, we believe they teach us a most precious lesson about the Lord's faithful care of His people Israel, and His loving interest in them and in all that concerns them. He watches over them from generation to generation, even though they are scattered and lost to human sight. He knows all about the twelve tribes. He will bring them into view in due time, and plant them in the land of Canaan, the inheritance meant for them, according to His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Order. Isaac stands first in the verse because he is first in God's thoughts. Ishmael's family is traced first because the natural comes before the spiritual.
- Reason. God lets the natural line run its course. Man's ruin must be shown in full before He unfolds grace.
- Choice. Both are Abraham's sons, but only the child of promise is counted as the offspring — descent settles nothing.
- Nature. Isaac's birth did not improve Ishmael. It brought in something new that came wholly from the Lord.
- Care. Ishmael's sons and Keturah's sons close off the line of flesh; the lists that remain show the Lord's faithful watch over His people, generation after generation.
These are their generations the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam;
Verse 29 opens the list of Ishmael's twelve sons. Chronicles has just named Abraham's two sons in verse 28, and it now follows the wrong one first. Why would a book tracing Israel's royal line spend its space on the family God passed over?
Chronicles lists the natural branch before the chosen one. The same pattern shapes the list of Noah's sons earlier in the chapter.
In God's eyes Shem, chosen by grace, has the first place. But in the natural order what is spiritual does not come first, as we have already pointed out. It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh.
The same rule is at work when the sons of Keturah follow in verse 32, and again when Esau's descendants come before Jacob's.
They follow Ishmael's posterity (vv. 28-31) in our chapter so as to show that they also are part of the lineage according to the flesh. The genealogy of Ishmael himself is given according to Genesis 25:12-15. As for Esau (vv. 35-42), his sons are mentioned in abbreviated form, without the names of their mothers and the numerous details given us in Genesis 26:1-19.
These are not random names. God told Abraham how many sons Ishmael would have, long before any of them was born. Verses 29-31 list that exact number: twelve.
More exactly still, as a fact close at hand and the pledge of all that would follow, God had said in Genesis 17: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation" (v. 20). So it was now. They are listed here in their order. Later, in Genesis 28:9, we read of Ishmael's daughter Mahalath, Nebaioth's sister, whom Esau took as his wife, besides the women of Canaan.
Kedar grew into far more than one man. Scripture keeps returning to his tribe long after Chronicles.
Son of Ishmael, and founder of an important tribe in the north-west of Arabia. The name is probably also used for Arabs in general. Gen. 25:13; 1 Chr. 1:29. The Psalmist longed for peace, for he had been living in the tents of Kedar, with those who "hated peace." Ps. 120:5-6. The bride in Song of Songs 1:5 was black, or dark, like the black tents of Kedar. The references to lambs, rams, goats, flocks, camels, tents, and tent-curtains show that these were a wandering people. Scripture also mentions their "villages."
God's rule is not limited to the line He chose.
Scripture shows us the government of God in His providence, and outside His covenant, in the same books that reveal the dealings of His electing grace… No sketch was ever more vivid than the one given of Ishmael's descendants: "Who has let the wild donkey go free? Who has loosed the bonds of the swift donkey, to whom I have given the arid plain for his home and the salt land for his dwelling place? He scorns the tumult of the city; he hears not the shouts of the driver. He ranges the mountains as his pasture, and he searches after every green thing" (Job 39:5-8)… No sober Christian imagines a continuing miracle in Ishmael's case. But what God said of that race is as certain as what He said of Israel.
Two names from this verse appear again in a prophecy of Israel's future glory.
We can trace the names we find here in other Scriptures. For instance, Isaiah 60, the great chapter of the millennial kingdom, mentions Nebaioth and Kedar (verse 7). The number twelve, twelve princes, links Ishmael closely with Israel. One day Israel will be blessed and will receive the promised Land as his glorious possession. Then the descendants of Ishmael will not be forgotten.
- Named — God records the line He passed over as fully as the line He chose.
- Natural first — Ishmael heads the list because Chronicles sets the seed of the flesh before the seed of promise, as it did earlier with Shem.
- Promise kept — the twelve names in verses 29-31 match the number God gave Abraham in Genesis 17. The list is a receipt for a kept word.
- Governed — the wild, wandering life of these tribes matches God's word about them. His rule reaches past His covenant people.
- Gathered — Nebaioth and Kedar reappear in Isaiah 60. When Israel is blessed, this branch is not forgotten.
Mishma and Dumah; Massa, Hadad, and Tema;
This verse names five of Ishmael's twelve sons, part of the long list that opens Chronicles before it turns to Israel and David. Why does a book about God's chosen line begin with families outside it, and what became of these men?
Lists like this are often skipped. One writer admits that a page of names does not hold us like the great chapters of the New Testament. He still refuses to let that settle its worth:
We do not presume to say that we should linger with equal interest over the first chapter of First Chronicles and the seventeenth chapter of John, or the eighth chapter of Romans. What we do say is that each of these Scriptures is divinely inspired, one just as much as another. And further, that 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a niche which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
Anyone comparing this verse with the parallel list in Genesis meets a small puzzle in one name. A reference work states the plain fact:
Son of Ishmael. 1 Chronicles 1:30. Called HADAR in Genesis 25:15.
Ishmael's sons come before Isaac's here, and the chapter repeats that order:
It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts, but Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh. So too with Isaac: the descendants of his son Esau are listed first (v. 35), as we have already seen with Ham and with Ishmael.
Another writer draws out what this order says about God's timing:
God's purposes ripen latest. God lets the world take its own way, and it exalts men in the earth. God means to exalt the Man who humbled Himself.
God had spoken about Ishmael long before these sons were born. One writer sets those older words beside this list:
Ishmael was to be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he would live over against all his brothers (Genesis 16:10-12). This too has been exactly fulfilled from the beginning until now. God spoke even more exactly in Genesis 17. It was a fact close at hand and the pledge of all that would follow: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you: behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation" (v. 20). So it was now. They are listed in their order.
These were not private people who died out. Two of the five names in this verse still mark real ground in Arabia:
Some of the other sons of Ishmael may be more or less unknown. But you cannot say that of Dumah and Tema. Their names are written large and deep in the northern part of the Negd, the name the people there use for the interior highlands of Arabia.
Tema shows how far a single name in this verse travels through the rest of the Bible:
Son of Ishmael, and father of a tribe of the same name; also the territory the tribe occupied. Genesis 25:15; 1 Chronicles 1:30; Job 6:19; Isaiah 21:14; Jeremiah 25:23.
These men stand outside the chosen line. Even so, God's future still has a place for their descendants:
The number twelve, twelve princes, links Ishmael closely with Israel. In the future Israel will be blessed and will receive the promised land as his glorious possession. Even then, Ishmael's descendants will not be forgotten.
So a page of names holds more than history:
Surely this genealogy is no meaningless list of names, but a place where we may read the promise and the ultimate purpose of God.
- Inspired — this list is as much God's word as John 17, and does a work those greater chapters cannot do.
- Ordered — Ishmael's sons come before Isaac's. The natural line comes first; God's purposes ripen last.
- Promised — God told Abraham that Ishmael would father twelve princes. Here they are, counted by name.
- Enlarged — Dumah and Tema grew into real tribes and lands. Their names return in Job, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
- Remembered — twelve princes echo Israel's twelve tribes. When Israel is blessed at last, Ishmael's line is not forgotten.
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedmah those are the sons of Ishmael.
Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah complete the twelve sons of Ishmael, and a closing line shuts the list. Why does a book about Israel's line stop to count out the family of Ishmael, who was not the heir?
A page of names does not read like the great chapters of the Bible. One writer holds two things together: such a list is as inspired as any other page, and it does work no other page can do.
We do not claim that we should linger with equal interest over the first chapter of First Chronicles and the seventeenth chapter of John or the eighth chapter of Romans. That hardly needs saying, since no one raises the question. But we do claim that each of these Scriptures is inspired by God, one just as much as another. And more than that: 1 Chronicles 1 and passages like it fill a place which John 17 cannot fill, and do a work which Romans 8 cannot do.
The order in the chapter is deliberate. It names Isaac before Ishmael, yet it lists Ishmael's family first, and the same pattern runs through the genealogy.
It is the same with Abraham's offspring: "The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael" (v. 28). Isaac is named first, seen as first in God's thoughts. But Ishmael, the elder, is listed first (v. 29) as the seed according to the flesh. So with Isaac: the descendants of his son Esau come first (v. 35), as we have already seen with Ham and Ishmael.
The list stops at exactly twelve because God had already given the number. Kelly ties it back to what God said to Hagar and to Abraham.
Flesh has its privileges quickly. This was already the beginning of what the Lord's angel prepared Hagar to expect: "I will multiply your seed exceedingly, so that it cannot be numbered for multitude." … But God spoke more exactly still in Genesis 17. There He gave an immediate fact, and the pledge of all that would follow: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you: behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him very greatly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation" (v. 20). So it was now.
So the closing words of the verse are not a mere tally. They are a receipt on a promise. Kelly adds that Scripture shows God governing nations outside His covenant, in the same books that reveal His grace.
Two of the three names in this verse did not stay on the page. Jetur left his name on a region that appears in the Gospel record.
Ituraea: a province east of the upper Jordan, and Herod Philip was made its tetrarch (Luke 3:1). Its boundaries cannot be clearly defined. But it reached toward Damascus and included the southern slopes of Anti-Lebanon. Its name comes from JETUR, son of Ishmael.
Jetur and Naphish appear again later in Chronicles, as tribes at war with Israel's eastern tribes. That battle teaches one of the book's clearest lessons.
"They put their trust in Him." The God of grace owed it to His own character to answer them, however guilty they were about the unity of the people of God. So, despite the ruin, grace always responds to faith. This is one of the distinctive marks of these books of Chronicles.
One writer reads Israel's future in the number twelve.
The number twelve, twelve princes, links Ishmael closely with Israel. When Israel is blessed in the future and receives the promised land as his glorious possession, the descendants of Ishmael will not be forgotten.
- Promise. Twelve names, no more and no fewer, match what God had said to Hagar and to Abraham. The closing line of the verse reads like a receipt on a pledge.
- Order. The chapter lists Ishmael's family first because the natural comes before the spiritual. Isaac is first in God's thoughts; Ishmael is first in the flesh.
- Reach. Jetur gave his name to Ituraea, a region that appears in Luke's Gospel.
- Grace. When Jetur and Naphish later fight Israel, Israel's tribes trust God and He answers them. Grace always responds to faith, even in a ruined day.
- Future. The list is not a dead end. God will not forget Ishmael's line when Israel is finally blessed.