Ishmael’s wife was the mother of the daughters and sons Lehi’s family brought from Jerusalem into the wilderness. When Nephi and his brothers returned to fetch Ishmael’s household, the Lord softened Ishmael and his family so that they journeyed with them down to Lehi’s tent (1 Nephi 7:5). As the group traveled, Laman and Lemuel, two of Ishmael’s daughters, and his two sons rebelled against Nephi, Sam, Ishmael, his wife, and his three other daughters (1 Nephi 7:6). Her position among the faithful in that conflict shows that her later intercession was an act of covenant loyalty, not merely a peacemaking temperament.
After Nephi’s brothers bound him and he prayed to be freed, they again sought to seize him. One of Ishmael’s daughters, her mother, and one of Ishmael’s sons pleaded with them “insomuch that they did soften their hearts; and they did cease striving to take away [Nephi’s] life” (1 Nephi 7:19). Her descendants were later counted among the Nephite peoples as the Ishmaelites (Jacob 1:13).