Bereshis 25:1

1 5 Then again Avraham took an isha, and her shem was Keturah.

Bereshis 25:1 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 25:1

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 F26 says she was a daughter of the king of the Turks; another F1 of them calls her the daughter of King Rama; and another F2 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 F3, 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 F4 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.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 Abul. Pharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 14.
F1 Elmacinus, p. 34. apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 309.
F2 Patricides, p. 19. in ib.
F3 Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 20. p. 422.
F4 History of the World, l. 2. c. 4. sect. 2. p. 157.

Bereshis 25:1 In-Context

1 5 Then again Avraham took an isha, and her shem was Keturah.
2 And she bore him Zimran, and Yokshan, and Medan, and Midyan, and Yishbak, and Shuach.
3 And Yokshan fathered Sheva, and Dedan. And the bnei Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
4 And the bnei Midyan; Ephah, and Epher, and Chanoch, and Avida, and Eldaah. All these were the bnei Keturah.
5 And Avraham gave all that he had unto Yitzchak.
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