The Daughters of Ishmael

It’s hard to imagine the difficulty of the journey from Jerusalem to the promised land for the daughters of Ishmael.  Ishmael had five daughters and in 1 Nephi 16:7 we read that all five of them were married at the start of the journey and they would spend eight long years in the wilderness.  Most of that time would be spent in a desolate, hot, uninhabitable desert where few people live even today.  These daughters of Ishmael would bear children while living off of the food that surely in quality and quantity was far inferior to what they had had in Jerusalem.  And yet, as we look at their story and their struggles, we can see that despite the great hardships, it would not have been better to “draw back” and remain in Jerusalem, for the Lord was in reality saving their lives and their future (Hebrews 10:39).  

We get a sense of the extent of the suffering of the daughters of Ishmael in several places in the narrative.  Not too long into their journey after they left the valley of Lemuel, the group lost their ability to get game and they were, it appears, on the brink of starvation for they “could obtain no food” (1 Nephi 16:21).  No doubt some of the daughters of Ishmael by this point were with child and were suffering greatly.  After the group was humbled the Lord provided food and the group continued on, but it would appear that the physical suffering that had been endured was too much for their father.  Not long after the group finally obtained food again we read, “And it came to pass that Ishmael died, and was buried in the place which was called Nahom.”  Those five daughters were distraught at the loss of their father: “And it came to pass that the daughters of Ishmael did mourn exceedingly, because of the loss of their father, and because of their afflictions in the wilderness.”  They expressed their devastation this way: “Our father is dead; yea, and we have wandered much in the wilderness, and we have suffered much affliction, hunger, thirst, and fatigue; and after all these sufferings we must perish in the wilderness with hunger” (1 Nephi 16:34-35).  Despite their desire to “return again to Jerusalem” they did continue after “the voice of the Lord came and did speak many words unto them” and chastened the whole group (1 Nephi 16:39).     

               Surely the greatest difficulty for these daughters of Ishmael was bearing and raising children in a desert.  Laman and Lemuel described their experience this way, “Our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death” (1 Nephi 17:20).  Nephi of course saw the events differently as he told us how the Lord preserved and helped these women despite their difficult situation, but my guess is that most of us would have described the experience more like Laman and Lemuel.  As I think about the challenges of raising little children even with all of our modern conveniences that make so many of the physical requirements of caring for children easy, I can’t image what it was like to raise little ones in the desert where your most common situation was being dirty, hungry, hot, thirsty, and without any privacy.  Nephi wrote that they “were strong” and for them to have successfully made it through those eight years in the desert how much of an understatement that must have been!  Ultimately with their faith and sometimes their repentance, these women made it through the greatest of challenges to finally arrive—probably about ten years after their departure—in the land of promise they had sought.

When they first had left Jerusalem, Laman and Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, and two of the daughters of Ishmael rebelled and were “desirous to return unto the land of Jerusalem” (1 Nephi 7:6-7).  Perhaps for much of the journey through the difficult trials they wished that they actually had done that, but as we see from our understanding of the whole story, it would not have been better to remain at Jerusalem.  Had they remained they would have been there to see Nebuchadnezzar brutally seize the city where he “burnt the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem” (2 Kings 25:9).  In Jerusalem, the conquering army “slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age.”  Those who were lucky enough to have “escaped the sword” were “carried… away to Babylon; where they were servants to [king Nebuchadnezzar]” (2 Chronicles 36:17, 20).  No, despite the great hardships of the journey to get to the promised land, it would not have been better to turn back to Jerusalem.  As Paul would put it, it was through patience and doing the “will of God” that they finally did “receive the promise” (Hebrews 10:36).