(16) By their towns, and by their castles.--Towns and castles in the wilderness of Paran there were none, but we know for certain that the first of these words signified an unwalled village. (See Leviticus 25:31, where it is exactly described; also Psalm 10:8�, Isaiah 42:11.) It was, however, a settled and permanent place of dwelling. The other word rendered here castle, but used as the equivalent of tent in Psalm 69:25, is really a cluster of tents, the encampment of a tribe, and movable. It occurs in Numbers 31:10; 1Chronicles 6:54; Ezekiel 25:4. As is well known, the Arabs are divided into two classes--the dwellers in tents, who are ever moving from station to station, within certain limits, nevertheless, which they seldom pass over; and the agricultural class, who have fixed habitations, are looked upon as inferiors, and probably are the remains of a conquered race. To this day they pay a sort of rent, or black-mail, to the nobler Arabs. We find, then, this distinction already existing when this Toldoth was drawn up; the agricultural Arabs dwelling in unwalled villages, while the nomad tribes pitched now here, and now there, their clusters of black camels'-hair tents. And thus we have in these words proof that Ishmael and his subjects were not all upon the same level; for while he, his sons, and his noblest retainers would dwell in tents, the inhabitants of the villages would be men of inferior origin, compelled to submit themselves to him.

Verse 16. - These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, - unwalled encampments, from hatzar, to surround; used of the movable villages of nomadic tribes (cf. Isaiah 42:11) - and by their castles; - fortified keeps (Murphy); tent villages (Keil); nomadic camps (Kalisch). Cf. Numbers 31:10; 1 Chronicles 6:39; Psalm 69:26; Ezekiel 25:4) - twelve princes - this does not imply that Ishmael had only twelve sons, like Israel - a very suspicious circumstance (De Wette); but only that these twelve became phylarchs (Havernick). The Egyptian dedecarchy rested on a like earlier division of names. Homer mentions a similar case among the Phoenicians (Odyss., 8. 390); Thucydides another in ancient Attica (2. 15); vide Havernick's 'Introch,' § 18 - according to their nations (or tribe divisions).

25:11-18 Ishmael had twelve sons, whose families became distinct tribes. They peopled a very large country that lay between Egypt and Assyria, called Arabia. The number and strength of this family were the fruit of the promise, made to Hagar and to Abraham, concerning Ishmael.These are the sons of Ishmael,.... The twelve before mentioned, Genesis 25:13,

these are their names, by their towns and by their castles; their towns and their castles being called after their names, some of which we are able to trace at this distance, as the above notes show:

twelve princes according to their nations; these were princes, or heads of tribes, and there were twelve of them, and continued so, see Genesis 17:20; where is the prophecy, and here an accomplishment of it.