What is the meaning of, "He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen"?
What does God want us to learn from that, and why would God say that to him?
Genesis 16:12
ESV - 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.
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Singapore Moses
Supporter
Hebrew: pere’ (H6501), is used to refer "running wild". Here it refers to man. Used 10 times of wild asses (Job 6:5; 11:12; 24:5; 39:5; Ps. 104:11; Isa. 32:14; Jer. 2:24; 14:6; Hos. 8:9). Ishmael"s hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him was a prophecy foretold about him. True today after four thousand years. Cp. Isa. 21:13; Jer. 3:2; Ezra 8:31.
Kenneth Heck
Supporter
Ishmael's descendants were like a "wild donkey" (roaming freely) because they never received the domestication that the civilizations and empires surrounding them would have provided. Due to the barrenness of southern Arabia, no empire, from the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, or Roman considered it worth their effort to conquer and assimilate these people. As a result, the Ishmaelites lived under the law of the wild, or the "law of the jungle" where violence is the usual way of settling differences, until Mohammad brought them under a new religion and rules of conduct. Unfortunately, Islam was, and still is, the most intrinsically violent religion on the planet. Dwelling "in the presence of all his brethren" (KJV) is a known characteristic of Islam describing their marked preference for living in traditional Muslim areas (in contrast to the diaspora of the Jews). However, we see today much immigration of Muslims to Europe, seemingly contradicting this verse, but in reality they have no intention of assimilating into the countries they enter. Rather, they would believe these countries should and eventually will be converting to Islam, with or without violence.
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