Genesis 25:18

18 Ishmael’s descendants occupied the region from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.

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.

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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 twelve sons of Ishmael became the founders of twelve tribes named after them, listed according to the places they settled and camped.

17 Ishmael lived for 137 years. Then he breathed his last and joined his ancestors in death.

18 Ishmael’s descendants occupied the region from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. There they lived in open hostility toward all their relatives.

19 This is the account of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

20 When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

Footnotes

• [a]. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.