He will be a wild man (pere odom)

Yishmoel will rebel against all mankind

“And you [Avrohom] will call his name Yishmoel… He will be a wild man (“pere odom”). And his hand will be on everything and the hand of everyone on him.” (Bereishis 16: 11-12)

This is of course a well known passuk from this past weeks Parsha Lech Lecha. It is worth it to look in Rashi as well as into hos Unkelos translates this, but I want to quote from a Sefer called "Redemption Unfolding" by: Rav Alexander Aryeh Mandelbaum.Page 20. It is worth getting this sefer and reading the full chapter on this topic.

An Eternal Character Trait

We should not be fooled into thinking that "pere" is a superficial trait of Yoshmoel's; rather, it is at the very root of his character. To emphasize this, the Torah ignores Hebrew grammar, so to speak, by placing the adjective (pere) before the proper noun (odom), thus giving emphasis to the character trait (Rav Yehoshua Leib Diskin). That is to say, Yishmoel is not a man (odom) with a wild (pere) character. He is a wild character (pere) who takes the form of a man (odom)! His essence is more pere than odom.

This is to be Yishmoel's personality until the end of days - it is not naturally subject to alteration, even by reducation or societal pressure. "Our Torah us eternal, and when it says that 'he will be a pere odom,' it means that Yishmoel will forever remain a pere odom," the Chofetz Chaim is quoted as saying (MiShulchan Gavoah, page 78). "Even if cultured nations of the world attempt to make him into a restrained character, they cannot succeed because he is in essence unrestrained." The Chofetz Chaim then sighed and concluded: "Oy! Who knows what that pere odom is liable to do to Am Yisroel at the end of days...!"