Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 25

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 as his wife, and had six sons by her.

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 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 would 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.

Zimran. — The home of Keturah’s descendants is placed by Josephus and Jerome in Arabia-Felix; but the supposed traces of their names are untrustworthy.

Midian is the one son of Keturah who had a great future before him, for his descendants became famous traders (Genesis 37:28). As they are called Me· danites there in the Hebrew, in Genesis 37:36, it is probable that Medan and Midian coalesced into one tribe.

Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, belonged to them (Exodus 2:15–16). Enriched by commerce, they became so powerful as to be dangerous neighbors to the Israelites (Judges 6:7, Judges 6:8).

Shuah. — From him perhaps descended Bildad the Shuhite, Job’s friend (Job 2:11). The name in the Hebrew is different from that also rendered “Shuah” in Genesis 38:2.

Jokshan begot Sheba, and Dedan. —But Sheba and Dedan are also described as the sons of Raamah, the son of Cush (Genesis 10:7). We have here proof that these genealogies are to a certain extent geographical, and that whereas these districts at first were peopled by a Hamitic race, they were subsequently conquered by men of the Semitic stock, who claimed Abraham for their ancestor.

Most probably, therefore, we should not regard Sheba and Dedan as the names of men here. As men they were the sons of Raamah, but when the sons of Jokshan wrested these two countries from the family of Cush, they called them sons of their progenitor, because the dominant portion of the population had sprung from him. They appear as countries in Jeremiah 6:20; Jeremiah 49:8; Ezekiel 25:13; Ezekiel 27:15; Ezekiel 27:22; Ezekiel 38:13, and other passages.

Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim. —These are certainly not the names of men, but of the three tribes into which the Dedanites were divided.

The east country. —By this is meant Arabia and Southern Mesopotamia, where, by their superior vigour and organisation, the descendants of Abraham were able to establish their supremacy over the natives. Burckhardt tells us that Bedouins still follow Abraham’s practice. When their children are grown up, they give each of the younger sons his share of their goods (Luke 15:12), whereupon they move to a distance, and leave the eldest brother in quiet possession of the home.

An hundred threescore and fifteen years. — As Abraham was seventy-five years of age when he left Haran (Genesis 12:4), his sojourn in Canaan lasted just a century, one quarter of which was spent in the long trial of his faith before Isaac was granted to him. As, however, Esau and Jacob were born when Isaac was sixty years of age (Genesis 25:26), they would be fifteen at Abraham’s death, and probably had often seen their grandfather, and received his blessing.

Abraham ... was gathered to his people. — Regarding the belief in a future life implied in these words, see Note on Genesis 15:15, and compare Hebrews 11:16.