And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
Paran. Paran, which was further south than the wilderness of Beer-sheba, corresponded generally to the desert now called Et-Tih, bounded on the north by the southern mountains of Canaan, on the west by the wilderness of Shur, on the south by Jebel et-Tih, and on the east by mount Seir. When Ishmael removed to the wilderness of Paran is not recorded; whether immediately on recovery, or he tarried for a time in the neighbourhood of the well (cf. Genesis 16:12; also Isaiah 48:19; 1 Peter 1:25).
His mother took him a wife. On a father's death, the mother looks out for a wife for her son, however young; and as Ishmael was now virtually deprived of his father, his mother set about forming a marriage connection for him, it would seem, among her relatives. This incident is viewed by Paul (Galatians 4:22-26) as an allegorical representation of the old, or Sinaitic covenant. Hagar (Agar) was in bondage; and although for a time she was owned, protected, and supported by Abraham, she was ultimately thrust out, together with her son, into the wilderness, to let Sarah and the legitimate heir enjoy the exclusive possession of Abraham's love, as well as the undivided privileges of the inheritance. The old covenant, or Jewish dispensation occupied a similar position in the household of God: it was in bondage, and kept the yoke of servitude on the necks of his children. For a time it enjoyed the protection and support of the heavenly Master; but eventnally it was displaced by the better dispensation, or Christian Church, which, as 'the Lord's wife,' was entitled to all the honours and privileges of the married relation; so that, in order to afford unrestricted scope for the free and full expansion of the latter's spiritual offspring, the former, with its children, was sent into a wild and cheerless desert, among a race "whose hand is against every man, and every man's hand against them."