Person Old Testament
Ishmael
Ishmael was a priest who had married a foreign woman and pledged to put her away during Ezra's reforms. Mentioned once in Scripture, at Ezra 10:22.
Why it matters. Priest who married a foreign woman during Ezra's time.
- Primary passages
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-30 by the FaithGraph team
About Ishmael
Ishmael is listed among the priests who had married foreign women during the time of Ezra (Ezr.10.22). After the Babylonian exile, when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, Ezra discovered that many of the people, including priests and Levites, had intermarried with the pagan peoples of the land (Ezr.9.1-2).
Deeply grieved by this unfaithfulness, Ezra prayed and confessed the sins of the people (Ezr.9.3-15). The Israelites then made a covenant to put away their foreign wives and children (Ezr.10.3).
Ishmael is mentioned among the priests who had taken foreign wives (Ezr.10.22). He, along with the others, pledged to send away his foreign wife as part of the reforms Ezra instituted to restore obedience to God's law.
The text does not provide any other details about Ishmael's background or specific circumstances. His inclusion in this list highlights the widespread nature of the problem of intermarriage and the need for repentance and restoration among the religious leaders of Israel.
Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.
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Appears in Scripture
Named in 1 verse across 1 book. Occurrence data from STEPBible TIPNR (CC BY 4.0); references only, no translation text.
Ezra (1 verse)