The sons of Ishmael were two men who, with their families, left Jerusalem as part of Ishmael’s household to travel with Lehi’s family into the wilderness. After Ishmael joined the company, his two sons are named alongside their sisters and grouped with Laman and Lemuel, with whom they rebelled against Lehi, Nephi, and Sam (1 Nephi 7:6).
They sided with Laman and Lemuel in opposing Nephi. When Laman proposed to Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael that they kill Lehi and Nephi, the sons of Ishmael were among those addressed; the plan was stopped when the voice of the Lord chastened them and they turned away their anger (1 Nephi 16:37). On an earlier occasion, when Laman and Lemuel sought to kill Nephi, one of the sons of Ishmael, with one of the daughters and her mother, pleaded with them until they relented (1 Nephi 7:19).
After reaching the promised land, the sons of Ishmael followed Laman and Lemuel and became Lamanites. Mormon records that a mark was set upon them, with Laman and Lemuel and the Ishmaelitish women, to distinguish their seed from the Nephites’ (Alma 3:7-8). Their descendants, the Ishmaelites, are counted among the peoples that made up the Lamanites (Alma 43:13; 47:35). The land Ammon entered, the land of Ishmael, was named after the sons of Ishmael, who also became Lamanites (Alma 17:19).