Bible Strands
Genesis 25:14
Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the names of Ishmael’s sons in birth order, placing Mishma, Dumah, and Massa after Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel, and Mibsam. This list continues directly into the next verse with Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
The words — The text supplies three proper names prefixed with the Hebrew conjunction "and": Mishma (H4927), Dumah (H1746), and Massa (H4854). These terms function strictly as identifiers within a genealogical roster, carrying no descriptive modifiers in this passage.
The thread — The name Dumah appears again in Isaiah 21:11 as the target of a prophetic oracle concerning Seir. The broader Ishmaelite lineage continues to serve as a historical reference point in later biblical texts.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to accept the unadorned recording of ancestral lines as a foundational historical record. It demands attention to the continuity of tribal identity without importing theological commentary beyond the sequential roster.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
Cross-references
- Isaiah 21:11 This is the burden against Dumah: One calls to me from Seir, “Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?”
- Isaiah 21:16 For this is what the Lord says to me: “Within one year, as a hired worker would count it, all the glory of Kedar will be gone.