Hagar found an Egyptian wife for her son, and he in time fathered 12 sons, chieftains and family heads of the promised “great nation” of Ishmaelites. Ishmael also had at least one daughter, Mahalath, who married Esau.​—Ge 17:20; 21:21; 25:13-16; 28:9; see ISHMAELITE.

Ishmael, in turn, married an Egyptian by whom he had 12 sons (Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, Kedemah), the chieftains of the various Ishmaelite clans. (Ge 21:21; 25:13-16) The Ishmaelites, therefore, were at the start one fourth Semitic and three fourths Hamitic, racially speaking.

As God had promised, the Ishmaelites grew to become “a great nation” that ‘could not be numbered for multitude.’ (Ge 17:20; 16:10)