My knowledgeable muslim friend Nzingha took this discussion one step further after I mentioned about it on CARM. Here is the discussion...
Nzingha
"translation of Gen 16:12"
he will be a fruitful man: his hand shall be with everyone, and every man's hand shall be with him..."
plausable?
argument goes that a certain hebrew word which is translated here as "with" is defined as "in, at, to, on, among, with, towards; according to, by, because of."
rather than the given translation as 'against' in most bible translation. that being Ishmael the wild donkey ass of a man's hand will be against everyone.
how plausable is the translation "with"
and also the "wild donkey ass" is from what i understand from the word pere.. but the root para means fruitful
here is a website that I found that gives the hebrew words.
http://www.ark-of-salvation.org/wild_ass_2003.htm (this is the website Alexei copied and pasted yesterday)