Abraham’s handmaid. (Gen. xxv. 1.) The name means, to burn, from Kather.
the name of Abraham’s second wife. Abraham married Keturah, when he was one hundred and forty years of age, and by her he had six sons, Zimram, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Some chronologers, as Bishop Clayton, Hallet, &c, thinking it improbable that Abraham should marry again at such an advanced age, have dislocated the chronology of this period, by supposing that Abraham took Keturah as a concubine, in consequence of his wife Sarah’s barrenness, even before he left Charran; and that Keturah’s children were among the souls born to him and Lot during their residence in that country. But it seems evident from the whole tenor of the history, that Abraham was childless until the birth of Ishmael, Gen 15:2-3; that he had no other son than Ishmael when he received the promise of Isaac, Gen 17:18; and that Isaac and Ishmael jointly, as his eldest sons, celebrated his funeral, Gen 25:9. His second marriage, at the age of one hundred and forty years, shows his faith in the divine promise, that he should be a “father of many nations;” for which purpose his constitution might be miraculously renewed, as Sarah’s was. Beside, Abraham himself was born when his father Terah was one hundred and thirty years of age. Abraham settled the sons of Keturah in the east country of Arabia, near the residence of Ishmael.
Ketu´rah (incense), the second wife, or, as she is called in 1Ch 1:32, the concubine of Abraham, by whom he had six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah, whom he lived to see grow to man’s estate, and whom he established ’in the East country,’ that they might not interfere with Isaac (Gen 25:1-6). As Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born, who was given to him by the special bounty of Providence when ’he was as good as dead’ (Heb 11:12), as he was 140 years old when Sarah died; and as he himself died at the age of 175 years, it has seemed improbable that these six sons should have been born to Abraham by one woman after he was 140 years old, and that he should have seen them all grow up to adult age, and have sent them forth to form independent settlements in that last and feeble period of his life. If Isaac was born to him out of the course of nature when he was 100 years old, how could six sons be born to him in the course of nature after he was 140? It has therefore been suggested by good commentators, that as Keturah is called Abraham’s ’concubine’ in Chronicles, and as she and Hagar are probably indicated as his ’concubines’ in Gen 25:6, Keturah had in fact been taken by Abraham as his secondary or concubine-wife before the death of Sarah, although the historian relates the incident after that event, that his leading narrative might not be interrupted. According to the standard of morality then acknowledged, Abraham might quite as properly have taken Keturah before as after Sarah’s death; nor can any reason why he should not have done so, or why he should have waited till then, be conceived. This explanation obviates many difficulties, and does not itself contain any.
The wife of Abraham, after the death of Sarah, Gen 25:1-6 . Though she is called a "concubine," this may have been to distinguish her sons as well as Ishmael from Isaac the son of promise, Gen 25:6 ; 1Ch 1:32 ; Gal 4:22,30 . Her sons were the ancestors of many Arabian tribes.\par
A secondary wife or concubine taken by Abraham, whether in Sarah’s lifetime or afterward is uncertain (Gen 25:1; 1Ch 1:28; 1Ch 1:32). Their sons were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, Shuah; they spread through the desert E. to the Persian gulf. Hagar’s son Ishmael’s posterity was the elder branch of the "sons of the concubines."
[Ketu’rah]
Wife or concubine of Abraham by whom he had six sons, Midian being the most noted. Gen 25:1-4; 1Ch 1:32-33.
(
, lit. "incense"):
By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn
Abraham's second wife, whom he married after the death of Sarah (Gen. xxv. 1; I Chron. i. 32). She was the ancestress of sixteen tribes, among which were Arabian and Midianite ones. In I Chron. i. 32 Keturah is called "the concubine of Abraham," and, probably for this reason, she is identified in the Midrash (Gen. R. lxi., quoted also by Rashi) and in the Palestinian Targumim with Hagar, who was the first concubine of Abraham. The Midrash explains the name "Keturah" as based on her acts, which were pleasant like frankincense. In Gen. xxv. 5 the Midrash (l.c.) reads the term "ha-pillagshim" (= "the concubines") without the yod, which is the sign of the plural (
), explaining that there was only one concubine, as Hagar and Keturah were one person. Still it seems that such was not the opinion of the Talmudic doctors; for the children of Ishmael and the children of Keturah are kept distinct in the story of their complaints against the Jews before Alexander the Macedonian (Sanh. 91a).
KETURAH.—Abraham’s wife (Gen 25:1-4), or concubine (1Ch 1:32 f.; cf. Gen 25:6), after the death of Sarah; named only by J
W. Taylor Smith.
1Ch 1:32 (and also Gen 25:6) shows us that Keturah was not considered to be of the same dignity as Sarah who, indeed, was the mother of the son of promise, and, for obvious reasons, the sons of Abraham’s concubines were separated from Isaac. She was the mother of 6 sons representing Arab tribes South and East of Palestine (Gen 25:1-6), so that through the offspring of Keturah Abraham became “the father of many nations.”