As a nomadic inhabitant of the Paran Wilderness, he fulfilled the prophecy that said of him: “He will become a zebra of a man. His hand will be against everyone, and the hand of everyone will be against him; and before the face of all his brothers he will tabernacle.” (Ge 21:17-21; 16:12)

As God had promised, the Ishmaelites grew to become “a great nation” that ‘could not be numbered for multitude.’ (Ge 17:20; 16:10) But instead of settling down (they built few cities), they preferred the nomadic life. Ishmael himself was “a zebra of a man,” that is, a restless wanderer who roamed the Wilderness of Paran and lived by his bow and arrows. His descendants were likewise tent-dwelling Bedouin for the most part, a people who ranged over the Sinai Peninsula from “in front of Egypt,” that is, to the E of Egypt and across northern Arabia as far as Assyria. They were noted for being a fierce, warlike people hard to get along with, even as it was said of their father Ishmael: “His hand will be against everyone, and the hand of everyone will be against him.”​—Ge 16:12; 21:20, 21; 25:16, 18.