Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Biblical in origin: in Genesis 16:1-16; 17:18-25; 21:6-21; 25:9-17, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by the servant Hagar. In 16:11-12, the most significant verses for Melville's allegory, Hagar was cast off after the birth of Isaac, who inherited the covenant of the Lord instead of his older half-brother. Melville shapes his allegory to the Biblical Ishmael as follows: And so the name points to a Biblical analogy that marks Ishmael as the prototype of "wanderer and outcast," the man set at odds with his fellows. Wright says that all Melville's heroes—with the exception of Benito Cereno and Billy Budd—are
Ishmael son of Nethaniah his advice and depart for Egypt (Jeremiah 43:6). Ishmael ben Nethaniah is described in 2 Kings 25:25 as the son of Nethaniah, ‘son of Elishama of the royal family’. Jeremiah describes him as one of the chief officers of the (former) king Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 41:1). Ishmael was a soldier, described as a ‘captain of the forces’ (2 Kings 25:23; and Jeremiah 41:3). Together with a number of other such captains, Ishmael emerges from the surrounding open country (Jeremiah 40:7) and makes his way to Mizpah, a city in Benjamin, after Gedaliah is appointed governor. Although the forces were likely to