Genesis 25:1-10

THIRTEENTH SECTION

Abraham’s second Marriage. Keturah and her Sons. Abraham’s death and his burial

Genesis 25:1-10

1Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah [incense, vapor, fragrance]. 2And she bare him Zimran [= Simon. Celebrated in song, renowned], and Jokshan [fowler], and Medan [strife], and Midian [contention], and Ishbak [leaving, forsaking], and Shuah [bowed, sad—pit, grave]. 3And Jokshan begat Sheba [man; the Sabæans], and Dedan [Fürst: low country, lowlands]. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim [plural of Asshur. Fürst: hero, strength], and Letushim [hammered, sharpened], and Leummim [people]. 4And the sons of Midian; Ephah [darkness, gloomy], and Epher [= opher; a young animal, calf], and Hanoch [initiated], and Abidah [father of wisdom, the wise], and Eldaah [Gesenius: whom God has called]. All these Were the children of Keturah.

5And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and [separating] sent them away from 7Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country. And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years. 8Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full [satisfied with life; see Genesis 35:29] of years; and was gathered to his people. 9And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before [easterly from] Mamre; 10The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

GENERAL REMARKS

The present section is closely connected with the following (Genesis 25:12-18) which treats of Ishmael, and with the whole history of Isaac, under the common idea of the descendants of Abraham. It introduces first these descendants in the widest idea of the word: the sons of Keturah. Then those in a narrower sense: the family of Ishmael. And upon these, those in the most restricted sense: Isaac and his sons. The writer adheres to the same method here which he has followed in the presentation of the tabular view of the nations. He begins in his description with those most remote, then proceeds to those nearer, and finally comes to those standing nearest the centre. We cannot, however, make the Tholedoth (generations) here the place of a division in the history, since the end of the life of Abraham marks distinctly a section which is closed at the beginning of the history of Isaac; and thus, as the genealogy of Keturah is interwoven with the history of Abraham, so the genealogy of Ishmael is connected with the history of Isaac. Knobel holds that the section Genesis 25:1-18 belongs to the original writing. But it is not Elohistic merely because it contains genealogies, but because of the universal relation of the tribes here referred to. Knobel remarks upon the two genealogies of Keturah and Hagar, that the tribes dwelt in western Arabia and Arabia Petrea, and also in the northern half of Arabia Felix, while the descendants of Joktan (Genesis 10:26 ff.) belonged to southern Arabia, at least in the earliest time. “From the Abrahamic horde (?) there were thus divisions who went to the east, south-east, and south, where, however, they found original Arabian inhabitants, with whom they mingled and formed new tribes. We are not, therefore, to understand that the tribes here mentioned in each case were descended entirely from Abraham. It is not intended, even, that these tribes alone peopled the regions described; rather they were inhabited by other tribes also, e.g., Amalekites, Horites, Edomites, and others. The Arabs, who are truly so very dependent upon the Hebrew traditions, agree essentially with the Hebrew accounts. They distinguish: 1. Original Arabs in different parts of Arabia; 2. Katanites in Yemen and Hhadramant, and 3. Abrahamites in Hedjaz, Nejd, etc., but trace back the last-named to Ishmael, who turned his course to Mecca, and joined the tribe Djorhomites, with whom Hagar herself was buried. (See Ibn Coteiba, ed. by Wüstenfeld, pp. 18, 30 ff. Abulfeda: Hist. Anteisl., ed. by Fleischer, p. 190 ff.)” Knobel. [Also article “Arabia,” in Kitto and in Smith. A. G.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1.Genesis 25:1. Abraham and Keturah. Then again Abraham took a wife. The sense of this statement evidently is: 1. That Abraham took Keturah first after the death of Sarah, and had six sons by her, thus at an age of 137 years and upward (Abraham was ten years older than Sarah, who died aged 127 years); 2. that Keturah, although united with Abraham according to the nature of monogamy, enjoyed only the rights of a concubine (see Genesis 25:6, comp. 1 Chronicles 1:32). The first point is opposed by Keil: “It is generally held that the marriage of Abraham with Keturah was concluded after the death of Sarah, and that the power of Abraham at so great an age, to beget still six sons, is explained upon the ground that the Almighty God had endowed his body, already dead, with new life and generative strength, for the generating of the son of promise. This idea has, however, no sure ground upon which it rests, since it is not said that Abraham took Keturah to wife first after the death of Sarah, etc. This supposition is precarious, and does not agree well with the declaration that Abraham had sent away the sons of his concubines with presents during his own lifetime,” etc. Keil appears desirous to save the literal expression, that Abraham’s body was dead when he was a hundred years old (Romans 4:19) but in the effort comes into direct conflict with the moral picture of the life of Abraham, who even in his younger years had only taken Hagar at the suggestion of Sarah, in impatience as to the faith of the promise, and thus certainly would not in later years, and when there was no such motive, have violated the marriage rights of Sarah by taking another wife. He might also send the sons of Keturah away from his house before they were from thirty to forty years of age, as he had before sent Ishmael away. The expression as to the dead body evidently cannot be understood in an absolute sense, otherwise the conception of Isaac even could not be spoken of. But if, however, there is a miracle in the conception of Isaac, it follows only that the facts of our history are to be viewed as extraordinary, not as something incredible. And she bare him (see 1 Chronicles 1:32). 1. Keturah’s sons: Zimram. Ζομβρᾶν or Ζεμβρᾶν, etc. in the Septuagint. Knobel compares it with Ζαβράμ, the royal city of Κιναιδοκολπῖται, westwards from Mecca, upon the Red Sea, spoken of in Ptolemæus, 6, 7, 5, etc. Still he is in doubt. According to Delitzsch they lie nearer the Zemareni (Plin. vi. 32). Jokshan. Knobel: “Probably the Κασσανῖται (in Ptolem. 6., 7, 6) upon the Red Sea.” Keil suggests the Himjaric tribe of Jakisch, in southern Arabia. Medan and Midian. Knobel: “Without doubt Μοδιάνα, upon the eastern coast of the Ailanitic gulf, and Μαδιάμα, a tract to the north-east of this, in Ptolem. Genesis 6:7; Gen 2:27. The two tribes appear to have been united. The Arabian geographers regard a place, Madjain, as the residence of the father-in-law of Moses.”—Ishbak. Knobel: “Perhaps the name is still preserved in Schobeck, a place in the land of the Edomites.”—Shuah.Knobel: “It must be sought in or near the Edomites, since a friend of the Edomite, Job, belonged to this tribe (Job 2:11).” Other explanations may be seen in Delitzsch and Keil. 2. Jokshan’s sons: Sheba. Probably the Sabæans mentioned in connection with Tema (Job 6:19). The plunderers of the oxen and asses of Job (Job 1:15). Dedan. Named in Jeremiah 25:23, in connection with Tema and Buz, as a commercial people. 3. The sons of Dedan: Ashurim, compare with the tribe Asyr; Letushim, with the Banu Leits; Leummim, with the Banu Lam. 4. The sons of Midian: Epha. Named in Isaiah 60:6, in connection with Midian, a people trading in gold and incense. Epher The Banu Ghifar in Hedjaz; Hanoch, compare with the place Hanakye, three days journey northerly from Medina: Abidah and Eldaah. “Compare with the tribes Abida and Wadaah, in the vicinity of Asyr.” Keil. For the more particular and detailed combination of these names with Arabic tribes, see Knobel, p. 188–190. [The attempt to identify these tribes, and fix their locality, has not been very successful. The more full and accurate explorations of Arabia may shed more light upon what is now very obscure—although it is probable that in their eternal wars and tumults, their fixed limits, and probably the tribes themselves, have been lost. A. G.]

2.Genesis 25:5. Abraham’s bequests. All that he had,—i.e., The herds and essential parts of his possessions. Isaac was the chief heir of his legitimate marriage. This final distinction was previously a subject of divine appointment, and had been also confirmed by Abraham (Genesis 24:36), and finds expression in the arrangements for Isaac’s marriage. The sons of the concubines.—In comparison with Sarah, the mistress, even Keturah was a wife of a secondary rank. This relation of degrees is not identical with concubinage, nor with a morganitic marriage. It is connected, beyond doubt, with the diversity in the right of inheritance on the part of the children. Gave gifts. He doubtless established them as youthful nomads, with small herds and flocks, and the servants belonging with them. Unto the east country. To Arabia. [In the widest sense, easterly, east, and south-east. A. G.] This separation was not occasioned merely by the necessities of nomadic chiefs, but also for the free possession of the inheritance by Isaac (see Genesis 13:11; Genesis 36:6). Delitzsch thinks that he had already, during his lifetime, passed over his possessions to Isaac. Under patriarchal relations, there is no true sense in which that could be done. But when the necessities of the other sons were satisfied, the inheritance was thereby secured exclusively to Isaac. “The Mosaic, and indeed patriarchal usage recognized only a so-called intestate inheritance, i.e., one independent of the final arrangement of the testator, determined according to law, by a lineal and graded succession. If, therefore, Abraham would not leave the sons of his concubines to go unprovided for, he must in his own lifetime endow them with gifts.” Delitzsch.

3.Genesis 25:7. Abraham’s age, death, burial, and grave. And these are the days. The importance of the length of Abraham’s life is here also brought into strong relief through the expression which is fitly chosen. One hundred and seventy-five years. An old man and full of years. [Of years is not in the original. Abraham was full, satisfied.A. G.] According to the promise Genesis 13:15, comp. Genesis 35:29. And was gathered. The expression is similar to that: come to his fathers (Genesis 15:15), or shall be gathered to his fathers (Judges 2:10), and presupposes continued personal existence, since it designates especially the being gathered into Sheol, with those who have gone before, but also points without doubt, to a communion in a deeper sense with the pious fathers on the other side of death. In later days Abraham’s bosom became the peculiar aim and goal of the dying saints (Luke 16:22). And they buried him. Ishmael takes his part in the burial, not as Knobel thinks, because he was first removed after this; but because he was not so far removed but that the sad and heavy tidings could reach him, and because he was still a renowned son of Abraham, favored with a special blessing (Genesis 17:10. In the cave of Machpelah. It should be observed with what definiteness even the burial of Abraham in his hereditary sepulchre is here recorded.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Delitzsch: “Keturah was not, like Hagar, a concubine during the lifetime of the bride: so far Augustin: De civ. dei, xvi. 34, correctly rests upon this fact in his controversy with the opponents of secnndœ nuptiœ. But still she is, Genesis 25:6 (comp 1 Chronicles 1:32), פִּילֶנֶשׁ; she does not stand upon the level with Sarah, the peculiar, only one, the mother of the son of promise. There is no stain, moreover, cleaving to this second marriage. Even the relation to Keturah promotes, in its measure, the divine scheme of blessing, for the new life which (Genesis 1:26) came upon the old, exhausted nature and strength of Abraham, and the word of promise, which destined him to be the father of a mass of nations, authenticates itself in this second marriage.”

2. The second marriage of Abraham has also its special reason in the social necessities and habits of the aged and lonely nomad. The word (Genesis 2:24) holds true of Isaac.

3. Physiology speaks of a partial appearance of a certain regeneration of life in those who have reached a great age; new teeth, etc. These physiological phenomena appear to have reached a full development in the life of Abraham. We should perhaps hold—that these epochs of regeneration in the course of life appear more frequently in the patriarchs, living nearer to the paradisiac time and state. [We must not, however, overlook the fact, that the regeneration in Abraham’s case was supernatural. A. G.]
4. The Abrahamites in the wider sense, who partially peopled Arabia, must form the broad basis for the theocratic faith of Abraham, and become a bridge between Judaism and Christianity on the one hand, and heathenism on the other. Gerlach: “All these are heads of Arabian tribes, but they are in great part unknown. Those who are best known are the (Genesis 25:2) Midianites, on the east of the Ailanitic gulf. A mercantile people (Genesis 37:28) often afterwards at war with Israel (especially Judges 7:8.) who in the time of the kings, have already disappeared from the history.” Bunsen: “The Arabians are still Saracens, i.e., east-landers (comp. Genesis 29:1).”

5. The days of the years. The life-time is spent in the days of the years, and at its end the years appear as days. [Abraham is now in all respects complete as to his life; he has rendered the highest obedience (Genesis 1:22), he has secured a grave in the land of promise (Genesis 1:23), he has cared for the marriage of the son of promise (Genesis 1:24), he has dismissed the sons of nature merely (Genesis 25:5-6), and finally he has come to a good age and is satisfied with life. Then Abraham dies. Baumgarten, p. 246. A. G.]

6. Gathered to his people. The choice of the expression here rests upon a good ground; Abraham has become a father in an eminent and peculiar sense. Essentially, moreover, the expression is the same with that (Genesis 15:15), come to his fathers, lie with the fathers (Deuteronomy 31:16), be gathered with the fathers (Judges 2:10). “These expressions do not mean merely to die, for גָּוַע and מוּת are constantly joined together (Genesis 25:8; Genesis 25:17; Genesis 35:29, etc.), nor to be buried in a family burial-place with relatives, because the burial is expressed still by קָבַר (Genesis 25:9; Genesis 15:15, etc.), and because they are used of those who were not buried with their fathers, but in other places, e.g., Moses, David, etc., as well as of those in whose tombs the first one of the fathers was laid, e.g., Solomon and Ahab (1 Kings 11:43; 1 Kings 22:40).” Knobel. But there is no ground for his assertion, that these expressions, however, are derived from burials in common public grounds, and then transferred to the admission into Sheol. We should not confound with this harsh assumption the fact, that a more or less common burial represented perhaps the reunion on the other side of the grave. But the peculiar church-yards or large public burial-places were unknown to the patriarchal nomads. Jacob did not bring the body of his Rachel to Hebron. There must have been developed already with Enoch a definite consciousness of the faith of immortality (Hebrews 11:5). Delitzsch: “As the weariness with life on the part of the patriarchs was not only a turning away from the miseries of the present state, but a turning to that state beyond the present, free from these miseries, so the union with the fathers is not one of the corpse only, but of the persons. That death did not, as it might have appeared from Genesis 3:19, put an end to the individual continued existence of the man, was an idea widely spread through the after-paradisiac humanity, which has its ultimate (?) source and vindication in that grace of God testified to man at the same time with his anger,” etc. The consciousness of immortality no more takes its origin after the fall, than the conscience (Romans 2:14-15). The hope of life in the patriarchs was surely something more (Hebrews 11:13) than a mere consciousness of immortality. But death and the state beyond it has evidently, in the view of the patriarchs, a foreshadowing and gleam of that New-Testament peace, which was somewhat obscured during the Mosaic period, under the light of the law, and the more developed feeling of guilt and death. To the very rich literature upon this subject belong: Böttcher: de Inferis, etc.; Œhler: Veteris Testamenti sententia de rebus post mortem futuris illustrata; the writings of Gideon Brecher, Engelbert, Schumann; “The presupposition of the christian doctrine of Immortality stated,” H. Schultz. Upon Sheol consult the Bible Dictionaries.

7. Was gathered to his people, or those of his race, to his fathers— to go home to them, thus to go home—lie or rest with them; a symbolical, rich, glorious declaration of a personal life in the other world, and of a union with those of like mind or character.

8. The connection of Ishmael with Isaac in the burial of Abraham presents the former in a favorable aspect, as Esau appears in a favorable light in his conduct towards Jacob at his return to Canaan.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See the Doctrinal and Ethical paragraphs. How God fulfils to Abraham all his promises: 1. The promise of a rich life (father of a mass of nations, of a great age); 2. the promise of a peaceful death (satisfied with life, full of days, an honorable burial). The Abrahamites, or children of Abraham: 1. Common characteristic religiousness, spirituality, wide-spread, ruling the world; 2. distinctions (Arabian and Jew, Mohammed and Christ, Mohammedanism and the Christian world). Abraham’s bequests, a modification of the strictness of the right of inheritance. Days of Abraham, or this full age even, at last only a circle of days. Abraham died in faith (Hebrews 11:13)—The present and future in the burial of Abraham: 1. On this side, the present, his two sons alone in the cave of Machpelah with the corpse; 2. on that side, the future, a community of people, the companions of Abraham, to whose society he joins himself. Abraham died on the way to perfection: 1. How far perfected? 2. how far still not perfect?

Starke: (Upon the division of Arabia in the wider sense.)—Cramer: The second or third marriage is not prohibited to widowers or widows; still all prudence and care ought to be exercised (Romans 7:8; 1 Corinthians 7:39; Tob 3:8). Bibl. Wirt.: Pious and prudent householders act well when for the sake of good order they make their bequests among their children and heirs (Isaiah 38:1). (Since Isaac was born in the hundredth year of Abraham, and Jacob and Esau in the sixtieth year of Isaac, and in the twentieth year of his married state, so Jacob must have been fifteen years old at the death of Abraham.) (Sir 14:16-17.)—The pious even are subject to death, still their death is held precious by the Lord. What God promises his children, that he certainly keeps for them (Genesis 15:15; Psalms 33:4). To die at a tranquil age and in a tranquil time, is an act of God’s kindness and love. Cramer: The cross and adversity make one yielding and willing to die. The souls of the dead have their certain places; they are in the hand of God, and no evil befalls them (Wis 3:1; 2 Corinthians 5:8). Lisco: Faith in immortality is indeed never expressly asserted in the Holy Scriptures (see however Matthew 22:32), but is everywhere assumed, for without this faith the whole revelation of God would be vain and nugatory; the Scripture doctrine of the resurrection of the body includes the doctrine of immortality; is impossible indeed without this. This truth is set in its fullest and clearest light by Christ (2 Timothy 1:10),—Calwer Handbuch: We see, moreover, from these verses, how the Bible relates only the true history. Had it been a myth or poem it would have left Abraham at the highest step of the glory of his faith, and passed over in silence this union with Keturah at the age of a hundred and forty years. Abraham is presented to us as an instance and type of faith, but not as one artistically drawn and beautified, but as one taken from actual life, not even as a (superhuman) perfect believer, but as one such, who leaves us to find the first perfect one in his great descendant, and points us to him.

Schröder: The satisfaction with life well agrees with a heavenly-minded man (Roos). To his people. The words sound as if Abraham went from one people to another, and from one city to another. An illustrious and remarkable testimony to the resurrection and the future life (Luther). Since Abraham himself was laid there (in the cave of Machpelah) to rest, he takes possession in his own person of this promised land (Drechsler). [And while his body was laid there as if to take possession of the promised land, his soul has gone to his people to take possession of that which the promised land typified, or heaven. A. G.]—For the character of Abraham see Schröder, p. 442, where, however, the image and form of Sarah is thrown too much in the shade; [In the section now completed the sacred writer descends from the general to the special, from the distant to the near, from the class to the individual. He dissects the soul of man, and discloses to our view the whole process of the spiritual life, from the new-born babe to the perfect man. The Lord calls, and his obedience to the call is the moment of his new birth. The second stage of his spiritual life presents itself to our view when Abraham believed the promise, and the Lord counted it to him for righteousness, and he enters into covenant with God. The last great act of his spiritual life is the surrender of his only son to the will of God. Murphy, p. 362. A. G.]

Footnotes:

[1][Genesis 25:2. Medan, Judge, and Midian, one who measures. Murphy. A. G.]

[2][Genesis 25:8. Lit., Breathed out. A. G.]

[3][It is not unusual for the author to go back and bring up the narrative, especially at the close of one section, or at the beginning of another; but it is not probable that this is the case here. We may hold to the literal sense of the words, that Abraham’s body was dead, i.e., dead as to offspring, and yet hold that the energy miraculously given to it for the conception of Isaac was continued after Sarah’s death. A. G.]

[4][Ishmael, although not the promised seed, was yet the subject of a special blessing. The sons of Keturah had no particular blessing. Ishmael is, therefore, properly associated with Isaac, in paying the last offices to their deceased father. Murphy, p. 360. A. G.]

[5][Also an Excursus of Prof. Tayler Lewis on Genesis 37:35, below, and the wide literature here open to the English reader; embracing the doctrine of “the intermediate state,” and the controversies upon the intermediate place. A. G.]