Genesis 25:1

Then again Abraham took a wife,.... Three years after the death of Sarah, and when his son Isaac was married, and he alone, and now one hundred and forty years of age: and her name [was] Keturah; who

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. Then again Abraham took a wife - Hebrew, 'added and took.' Keturah , [ QªTuwraah (H6989)] - incense.

GENESIS CHAPTER 25 Abraham’ s sons by Keturah, . Isaac inherits his father’ s estate, . Provision for the other sons, . Abraham’ s age, ; death, ; burial, ,10. God blesseth Isaac, . The posterity of Ishmael, . His age and death, . Their habitation, . The generations of Isaac, . His age when married, . He prays for children; God answers, . Two children struggle in the womb; Rebekah inquires of the Lord, . God gives the reason, . She delivered of twins, . The first-born red and hairy; his name, . His brother takes him by the heel; his name: Isaac’ s age when they were born, . The eldest a cunning hunter; the other a plain man, . Isaac loves the eldest; Rebekah the youngest, . The eldest sells his birth right for red pottage, and is called Edom, . Confirms the sale by an oath, . Despising his birthright, . After Sarah’ s death and Isaac’ s marriage Abraham took a wife, , not from any inordinate lust, which his age and eminent grace may sufficiently evince, but from a desire of more children, and of accomplishing God’ s promise concerning the great multiplication of his seed. Keturah was a distinct person from Hagar, as appears from , and , and, as it seems, of better quality, and younger, for Hagar was now eighty years old, and not likely to be a mother of six children.

Genesis 25:1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name [was] Keturah.Ver. 1. Then again Abraham, &c.] After Sarah’ s death, though Calvin thinks otherwise. His body, dry and dead forty years before, is now, by God’ s blessing, made lively and lusty.

XXV. ABRAHAM’S WITH KETURAH.(1) Then again Abraham took a wife.—This rendering implies that Abraham’s marriage with Keturah did not take place until after Sarah’s death; but this, though probable, is far from certain, as the Hebrew simply says, And Abraham added and took a wife. This statement is altogether indefinite; but as Abraham was 137 years of age at Sarah’s death, and lived to be 175, it is quite possible that, left solitary by Isaac’s marriage, he took Keturah to wife, and had by her six sons. The sole objection is his own statement, in Genesis 17:17, that it was a thing beyond nature for a man a hundred years old to have a son; how much more improbable, then, must it have become after forty more years had passed by! The argument on the other side, which would infer that the marriage took place in Sarah’s lifetime, from the fact that the birth of grandchildren is mentioned in Genesis 25:3-4, has little weight, as their names might have been subsequently added to bring down the genealogy to a later date. Jewish commentators cut the knot by identifying Keturah with Hagar, who in the meanwhile had, as they say, set an example of matronly virtue in the manner in which she had devoted herself to the bringing up of Ishmael. But in Genesis 25:6 there is an evident allusion to both Hagar and Keturah in the mention of Abraham’s “concubines” in the plural; and in 1 Chronicles 1:32 the children of Keturah are distinguished from Hagar’s one son, Ishmael. To this we must add that as Ishmael was fourteen years old when Isaac was born, he would be now about fifty-four years of age, and his mother have passed the period of life when she could bear six sons. The position, moreover, of Keturah was entirely distinct from that of Hagar. The latter was Sarah’s representative; and her son, if Sarah had remained barren, would have been the heir. Keturah was a secondary wife, whose children from the first held an inferior position in the household. So Bilhah and Zilpah became the substitutes of Rachel and Leah, and therefore their children ranked side by side with Reuben and Joseph, though not altogether on the same level. They were patriarchs, and the progenitors of tribes, even if the tribes sprung from them held a lower rank.

CHAPTER XXV Abraham marries Keturah, 1. Their issue, 2-4. Makes Isaac his heir, 5; but gives portions to the sons of his concubines, and sends them eastward from Isaac, to find settlements, 6. Abraham's age, 7, and death, 8. Is buried by his sons Isaac and Ishmael in the cave of Machpelah, 9, 10. God's blessing upon Isaac, 11. The generations of Ishmael, 12-16. His age, 17, and death, 18. Of the generations of Isaac, 19, who was married in his fortieth year, 20. Rebekah his wife being barren, on his prayer to God she conceives, 21. She inquires of the Lord concerning her state, 22. The Lord's answer, 23. She is delivered of twins, 24. Peculiarities in the birth of her sons Esau and Jacob, from which they had their names, 25, 26. Their different manner of life, 27, 28. Esau, returning from the field faint, begs pottage from his brother, 29, 30. Jacob refuses to grant him any but on condition of his selling him his birthright, 31. Esau, ready to die, parts with his birthright to save his life, 32. Jacob causes him to confirm the sale with an oath, 33. He receives bread and pottage of lentiles, and departs, 34. NOTES ON CHAP. XXV Verse 1. Then again Abraham took a wife] When Abraham took Keturah we are not informed; it might have been in the lifetime of Sarah; and the original ויסף vaiyoseph, and he added, c., seems to give some countenance to this opinion. Indeed it is not very likely that he had the children mentioned here after the death of Sarah and from the circumstances of his age, feebleness, c., at the birth of Isaac, it is still more improbable. Even at that age, forty years before the marriage of Isaac, the birth of his son is considered as not less miraculous on his part than on the part of Sarah for the apostle expressly says, Romans 4:19, that Abraham considered not his own body NOW DEAD, when he was about a hundred years old, nor the DEADNESS of Sarah's womb; hence we learn that they were both past the procreation of children, insomuch that the birth of Isaac is ever represented as supernatural. It is therefore very improbable that he had any child after the birth of Isaac; and therefore we may well suppose that Moses had related this transaction out of its chronological order, which is not unfrequent in the sacred writings, when a variety of important facts relative to the accomplishment of some grand design are thought necessary to be produced in a connected series. On this account intervening matters of a different complexion are referred to a future time. Perhaps we may be justified in reading the verse: "And Abraham had added, and had taken a wife (besides Hagar) whose name was Keturah," c. The chronology in the margin dates this marriage with Keturah A. M. 2154, nine years after the death of Sarah, A. M. 2145.

1–6. Abraham’s Descendants by Keturah This section is from J. The children by a concubine represent tribal relationship of a secondary and less intimate character. The domestic tradition in these verses preserves the recollection of an early connexion between the ancestors of Israel and the clans or tribes on the borders of the North Arabian desert.

- The Death of Abraham 1. קטוּרה qeṭûrâh, “Qeturah, incense.” 2.

ABRAHAM’S SONS BY KETURAH, Genesis 25:1-6. 1. Then — Rather and, for here is no note of time. When Abraham took Keturah for a wife we have no means of knowing, but it is generally supposed to have been after Sarah’s death.