[Avodah] To praise Yishmael?

[Yisrael Herczeg via Avodah]

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 11:06 PM, Toby Katz <t613k at aol.com> wrote:
> In pasuk 16:16 we are told that Avraham was 86 years old when Yishmael was
> born, and Rashi comments there that this is written in order to praise
> Yishmael, since it proves that Yishmael was 13 when he had a bris and he
> didn't object...
>
> But in 17:25 the pasuk states explicitly that Yishmael was 13 years old
> when he had a bris.  So we didn't need to do any arithmetic!

I like the Maskil LeDavid's answer to this question. If we had only the
explicit possuk, we'd know that Yishmael was thirteen when he had his
bris but not that he didn't object. The Torah underlines this point
through repetition, implying that it has significance -- although he
was thirteen he didn't object. (According to one pshat in Rashi to 22:1,
it was this particular point that ultimately led to the Akeidah.)