Genesis 25:1

Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

XXV.

ABRAHAM’S MARRIAGE 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 1Chronicles 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.

Benson Commentary

Genesis 25:1. Five and thirty years Abraham lived after the marriage of Isaac, and all that is recorded concerning him during that time lies here in a very few verses; we hear no more of God’s extraordinary appearances to him or trials of him; for all the days even of the greatest saints are not eminent; some slide on silently; such were these last days of Abraham. We have here an account of his children by Keturah, another wife, whom he married after the death of Sarah. He had buried Sarah, and married Isaac, the two dear companions of his life, and was now solitary; his family wanted a governess, and it was not good for him to be thus alone; he therefore marries again. By Keturah he had six sons, in whom the promise made to Abraham, concerning the great increase of his posterity, was in part fulfilled. The strength he received by the promise still remained in him, to show how much the virtue of the promise exceeds the power of nature.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:1-10 All the days, even of the best and greatest saints, are not remarkable days; some slide on silently; such were these last days of Abraham. Here is an account of Abraham's children by Keturah, and the disposition which he made of his estate. After the birth of these sons, he set his house in order, with prudence and justice. He did this while he yet lived. It is wisdom for men to do what they find to do while they live, as far as they can. Abraham lived 175 years; just one hundred years after he came to Canaan; so long he was a sojourner in a strange country. Whether our stay in this life be long or short, it matters but little, provided we leave behind us a testimony to the faithfulness and goodness of the Lord, and a good example to our families. We are told that his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him. It seems that Abraham had himself brought them together while he lived. Let us not close the history of the life of Abraham without blessing God for such a testimony of the triumph of faith.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Added and took a wife. - According to the laws of Hebrew composition, this event may have taken place before that recorded in the close of the previous chapter. Of this law we have several examples in this very chapter. And there is nothing contrary to the customs of that period in adding wife to wife. We cannot say that Abraham was hindered from taking Keturah in the lifetime of Sarah by any moral feeling which would not also have hindered him from taking Hagar. It has been also noticed that Keturah is called a concubine, which is thought to imply that the proper wife was still living; and that Abraham was a very old man at the death of Sarah. But, on the other hand, it is to be remembered that these sons were in any case born after the birth of Isaac, and therefore after Abraham was renewed in vital powers. If this renewal of vigor remained after the birth of Isaac, it may have continued some time after the death of Sarah, whom he survived thirty-eight years. His abstinence from any concubine until Sarah gave him Hagar is against his taking any other during Sarah's lifetime. His loneliness on the death of Sarah may have prompted him to seek a companion of his old age. And if this step was delayed until Isaac was married, and therefore separated from him, an additional motive would impel him in the same direction. He was not bound to raise this wife to the full rights of a proper wife, even though Sarah were dead. And six sons might be born to him twenty-five years before his death. And if Hagar and Ishmael were dismissed when he was about fifteen years old, so might Keturah when her youngest was twenty or twenty-five. We are not warranted, then, still less compelled, to place Abraham's second marriage before the death of Sarah, or even the marriage of Isaac. It seems to appear in the narrative in the order of time.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 25

Ge 25:1-6. Sons of Abraham.

1. Abraham took a wife—rather, "had taken"; for Keturah is called Abraham's concubine, or secondary wife (1Ch 1:32); and as, from her bearing six sons to him, it is improbable that he married after Sarah's death; and also as he sent them all out to seek their own independence, during his lifetime, it is clear that this marriage is related here out of its chronological order, merely to form a proper winding up of the patriarch's history.Abraham’s sons by Keturah, Genesis 25:1-4. Isaac inherits his father’s estate, Genesis 25:5. Provision for the other sons, Genesis 25:6. Abraham’s age, Genesis 25:7; death, Genesis 25:8; burial, Genesis 25:9,10. God blesseth Isaac, Genesis 25:11. The posterity of Ishmael, Genesis 25:12-15. His age and death, Genesis 25:17. Their habitation, Genesis 25:18. The generations of Isaac, Genesis 25:19. His age when married, Genesis 25:20. He prays for children; God answers, Genesis 25:21. Two children struggle in the womb; Rebekah inquires of the Lord, Genesis 25:22. God gives the reason, Genesis 25:23. She delivered of twins, Genesis 25:24. The first-born red and hairy; his name, Genesis 25:25. His brother takes him by the heel; his name: Isaac’s age when they were born, Genesis 25:26. The eldest a cunning hunter; the other a plain man, Genesis 25:27. Isaac loves the eldest; Rebekah the youngest, Genesis 25:28. The eldest sells his birth right for red pottage, and is called Edom, Genesis 25:30-32. Confirms the sale by an oath, Genesis 25:33. Despising his birthright, Genesis 25:34.

After Sarah’s death and Isaac’s marriage Abraham took a wife, ( a secondary wife, or a concubine, as she is called, Genesis 25:6, and 1 Chronicles 1:32), 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 Genesis 25:6, and Genesis 25:12, 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.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 she was, or of what family, is not said. An Arabic writer (z) says she was a daughter of the king of the Turks; another (a) of them calls her the daughter of King Rama; and another (b) the daughter of Pactor, king of Rabbah; but there were then no such people in being. Very probably she was one of Abraham's handmaids born in his house, or bought with his money, perhaps the chief and principal of them. The Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem say she is the same with Hagar, and so, Jarchi; but this is rejected by Aben Ezra, since mention is made of Abraham's concubines, Genesis 25:6; whereas it does not appear he ever had any other than Hagar and Keturah, and therefore could not be the same; and besides, the children of Hagar and Keturah are in this chapter reckoned as distinct. Cleodemus (c), a Heathen writer, makes mention of Keturah as a wife of Abraham's, by whom he had many children, and names three of them. Sir Walter Raleigh (d) thinks, that the Kenites, of whom Jethro, the father- in-law of Moses, was, had their name from Keturah, being a nation of the Midianites that descended from her.

(z) Abul. Pharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 14. (a) Elmacinus, p. 34. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 309. (b) Patricides, p. 19. in ib. (c) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 20. p. 422. (d) History of the World, l. 2. c. 4. sect. 2. p. 157.

Geneva Study Bible

Then again Abraham {a} took a wife, and her name was Keturah.

(a) While Sarah was yet alive.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. Abraham … another wife … Keturah] We are not told the period in Abraham’s history at which his marriage with Keturah took place. The mention of it here is introduced, in order to complete the account of his descendants, before the narrative passes on to the story of Isaac and Jacob.

Keturah] This name means “incense.” It is conceivable that the name stands in some sort of relation to the “frankincense” trade, which was carried on, by regular routes, between Arabia and Syria and Egypt. In 1 Chronicles 1:32 she is called “a concubine.”

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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - Then again Abraham took a wife, - literally, and Abraham added and took a wife (i.e. a secondary wife, or concubine, pilgash; vide ver. 6 and 1 Chronicles 1:28, 32); but whether after (Kalisch, Lunge, Murphy) or, before (Calvin, Keil, Alford, Bush) Sarah's death it is impossible to decide - and her name was Keturah - "Increase" (Gesenius); probably a servant in the family, as Hagar had been, though not Hagar herself (Targums), whom Abraham had recalled after Sarah's death (Lyra), since ver. 6 speaks of concubines. Genesis 25:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Abraham's Marriage to Keturah is generally supposed to have taken place after Sarah's death, and his power to beget six sons at so advanced an age is attributed to the fact, that the Almighty had endowed him with new vital and reproductive energy for begetting the son of the promise. But there is no firm ground for this assumption; as it is not stated anywhere, that Abraham did not take Keturah as his wife till after Sarah's death. It is merely an inference drawn from the fact, that it is not mentioned till afterwards; and it is taken for granted that the history is written in strictly chronological order. But this supposition is precarious, and is not in harmony with the statement, that Abraham sent away the sons of the concubines with gifts during his own lifetime; for in the case supposed, the youngest of Keturah's sons would not have been more than twenty-five or thirty years old at Abraham's death; and in those days, when marriages were not generally contracted before the fortieth year, this seems too young for them to have been sent away from their father's house. This difficulty, however, is not decisive. Nor does the fact that Keturah is called a concubine in Genesis 25:6, and 1 Chronicles 1:32, necessarily show that she was contemporary with Sarah, but may be explained on the ground that Abraham did not place her on the same footing as Sarah, his sole wife, the mother of the promised seed. Of the sons and grandsons of Keturah, who are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 1:32 as well as here, a few of the names may still be found among the Arabian tribes, but in most instances the attempt to trace them is very questionable. This remark applies to the identification of Zimran with Ζαββάμ (Ptol. vi. 7, 5), the royal city of the Κιναιδοκολπῖται to the west of Mecca, on the Red Sea; of Jokshan with the Κασσανῖται, on the Red Sea (Ptol. vi. 7, 6), or with the Himyaritish tribe of Jakish in Southern Arabia; of Ishbak with the name Shobek, a place in the Edomitish country first mentioned by Abulfeda; of Shuah with the tribe Syayhe to the east of Aila, or with Szyhhan in Northern Edom (Burckhardt, Syr. 692, 693, and 945), although the epithet the Shuhite, applied to Bildad, points to a place in Northern Idumaea. There is more plausibility in the comparison of Medan and Midian with Μοδιάνα on the eastern coast of the Elanitic Gulf, and Μαδιάνα, a tract to the north of this (Ptol. vi. 7, 2, 27; called by Arabian geographers Madyan, a city five days' journey to the south of Aila). The relationship of these two tribes will explain the fact, that the Midianim, Genesis 37:28, are called Medanim in Genesis 37:36.