Genesis 25:1-6

2008.Mar.28 04:49

Abraham’s Other Kids

Read Genesis 25:1-6 | Full Chapter

Abraham married another wife, whose name was Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. Dedan’s descendants were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites. Midian’s sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. These were all descendants of Abraham through Keturah.
(Genesis 25:1-4, NLT)

A lot of Abraham’s life from the point of view of the narrative of Genesis–indeed a lot of the book of Genesis–has been pretty focused on getting Isaac born and raised. Emphasis on the getting born part. Isaac is the child who is to specifically inherit Yahweh’s promise of giving Canaan to the descendants of Abraham (Genesis 17:17-21).

But after Sarah’s death, the spritely hundred-something year old Abraham gets married (I’m assuming after Sarah’s death) to a lady name Keturah. They have six sons, Midian being the only one with a particularly noted history.

Abraham gave everything he owned to his son Isaac. But before he died, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to a land in the east, away from Isaac.
(Genesis 25:5-6, NLT)

Abraham clearly separates Isaac from his other sons, both Ishmael and the sons of Keturah. Isaac is not presented as inheriting a double portion in relation to his half-brothers, but rather as the sole heir of Abraham. Abraham doesn’t leave his other sons out to dry exactly, but gives them gifts, I imagine of some value. “Hey, sorry, no inheritance for you, but here’s some gold,” may be the way his other sons received this decision. One the one hand, it’s nice to be given something, but there may still have been a feeling that they’d been disinherited.

Abraham sends these young men and their mothers (possibly referring to Keturah, Hagar, and maybe one or more other concubines not mentioned?) away to some land east of where Isaac is staying. I would guess this means east of Canaan in general, but that’s not clear to me. I don’t have a good guess as to Abraham’s motives. A couple of possibilities would be to decrease possible economic and/or political competition towards Isaac, or because Abraham thought these kids would for whatever reason be detrimental to Isaac’s dedication to Yahweh (It seems to me that Isaac’s faith was less solid than his parents’).

Another comment, quite aside from these speculations is to note that Abraham does not stop living with the birth of his “promised son”. It’s possible to let a “this is my calling” attitude impede our growth and reception of God’s blessings, when the opportunity to “walk in that calling” is unavailable, including because that function is finished. This happens even for people who don’t buy into the ‘one calling’ mentality, but are simply for a time over focused on something. When God gives me breaks, it’s often for a reason, be it that I need a break or he wants me doing something else for a bit.