Ishmael. The Massorites (App-30) set their hand to obliterate the Divine names in the case of men who had served to disgrace it. One is. el, in the compound "Ishmael", which means "whom my El heareth". It is used of five different men, and occurs forty-eight times: twenty times of Hagar's son; twenty-three times of Nethaniah's son in this history; and five times of the other three. On account of his horrible treachery, the memory of which is perpetuated by the fast of the seventh month (Zechariah 7:5; Zechariah 8:9), the vowel points were changed to obliterate the Divine Name (El): viz. yishma'el, instead of yishma'el, which is not observable in the ordinary English spelling.
sons. Some codices, with Aram, and Septuagint, read "son", as in Jeremiah 40:13.
Netophathite. a man of Netophah, now Khan Umm Tobah, north of Bethlehem (1 Chronicles 2:54.Ezra 2:22.Nehemiah 7:26; Nehemiah 7:26).