ContradictionsReading order 368Bible context 3 min read
How old was Ishmael when he was abandoned by Abraham?
The expulsion story uses language suggestive of a small child, while the earlier age notices make Ishmael at least fourteen before Isaac is weaned.
- Textual conflict
- Weak tension
- The alleged conflict needs substantial assumptions, such as treating an omission as a denial or figurative language as literal.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
The abandonment scene suggests a small dependent child but gives no age and does not unambiguously place Ishmael on Hagar's shoulder.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Hagar casts the child under a shrub and is told to lift him
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer–sheba. And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs. And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.
Genesis 21:14-18
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 21