What Does Genesis 25:13 Mean in the King James?
And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The genealogy carries the name “God hears” into the next generation, so a heard cry becomes part of a family’s continuing identity.
THE MEANING
Your identity does not begin as a blank page: you arrive through a web of named lives and inherited meanings. Here the sons are named under Ishmael, “God hears”, so the cry held in a name remains present as generations unfold. The list presents lineage as personal and particular, not anonymous.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that names are empty labels and that you make yourself from nothing; identity is also received and carried.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמָעֵאל
Yishma’el
GROWS FROM
ש־מ־ע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, or heed; Ishmael means “God hears.”
“Ishmael” in this verse is Yishma’el. The father’s name makes hearing part of the lineage’s identity. The root can mean responsive listening, so the name holds more than sound reaching the ear: it carries the sense of hearing that receives.
ALSO GROWS
shama: To hear, listen, or heed
שָׁמַע
The name Ishmael is built on this verb: God hears.
shemuah: A report or something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
What is heard can become a telling that travels onward, as Ishmael’s name is carried through the names of his sons.
מִבְשָׂם
Mibsam
GROWS FROM
ב־ש־ם
b-sh-m
Fragrance, spice, or something aromatic.
Mibsam is commonly understood from the word for fragrance or spice. This name preserves a sensory image inside the genealogy, showing how a name can carry nature alongside a person’s place in the family line.
ALSO GROWS
bosem: Fragrance or spice
בֹּשֶׂם
The root gives Mibsam its image of something aromatic.
besamim: Spices or fragrances
בְּשָׂמִים
The plural form extends the root’s sensory field, which is compressed into the name Mibsam.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
toledot
GROWS FROM
י־ל־ד
y-l-d
To bear, beget, or give birth.
The word for generations grows from the language of birth. The verse frames ancestry as a chain of lives coming forth, with names carried along that chain.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or beget
יָלַד
The root makes the family line concrete as births that bring new lives into being.
yeled: Child
יֶלֶד
The sons named here are the living branches of the births the verse records.
toledot: Generations or a record of origins
תּוֹלְדוֹת
This is the verse’s word for generations, joining ancestry to birth.
THE PATTERN
A heard cry can become a name that carries its answer forward through generations.
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.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.But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.THE THREAD
And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.Ishmael means “God hears,” and this verse carries that name forward through his sons. Genesis 16:11 makes the root visible: the name is given because the LORD hears Hagar’s affliction, so the genealogy preserves that hearing as part of the family’s identity.
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