Genesis 25:18

18 1They settled from Havilah to 2Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled[a] over against all his kinsmen.

Genesis 25:18 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 25:18

And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur
That is, the posterity of Ishmael, whose country reached from one place to the other; not from India to Chaluza, as the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; but the extent is that vast desert of Arabia, which eastward was called the wilderness of Havilah, and westward the wilderness of Shur; so that they inhabited it from east to west: that [is] before Egypt, as thou goest to Assyria;
which last place was over against Egypt, and bordered on that part where lies the way to the land of Assyria: [and] he died in the presence of all his brethren;
they being present when he died, or in peace with them, in all prosperity along with them: but since his death is spoken of before, and here the situation of his posterity, the words may be read, "it fell F25 in the presence of his brethren"; his lot, or the habitation of his posterity fell by lot between his brethren the Egyptians on one side of him, and the Israelites on the other; or between the sons of Keturah on the east, and the posterity of Isaac on the west.


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (lpn) "cecidit habitatio ipsi", Schmidt; "cecidit sors ejus", Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Ben Gersom, and Ben Melech.

Genesis 25:18 In-Context

16 These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes according to their tribes.
17 (These are the years of the life of Ishmael: 137 years. He breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.)
18 They settled from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen.
19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham fathered Isaac,
20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.

Cross References 2

  • 1. 1 Samuel 15:7
  • 2. Genesis 16:7; Genesis 20:1; Exodus 15:22

Footnotes 1

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.