Mibsam

The name Mibsam belongs to two figures in the Old Testament — a son of Ishmael whose line becomes one of the twelve Ishmaelite tribes, and a Simeonite of the same name who appears in the genealogy of that tribe in Chronicles.

A Son of Ishmael

The first Mibsam stands in the original list of Ishmael's twelve sons, the chiefs of the Ishmaelite tribes who pasture their flocks east and south of the patriarchal land: "And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam," (Gen 25:13). The Chronicler reproduces the list with the same order: "These are their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam," (1Ch 1:29). Mibsam stands fourth, after Nebaioth, Kedar, and Adbeel.

A Simeonite of the Line of Shallum

A second Mibsam appears in the Chronicler's genealogy of Simeon, in a four-name father-to-son chain: "Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son" (1Ch 4:25). The same names — Mibsam and Mishma — also occur among Ishmael's sons in Genesis 25, but the Simeonite genealogy of 1 Chronicles 4 traces a different line through Shallum.