Genesis 25-26    Listen

Abraham remarries...at 136 (Genesis 25:1-11)

1 Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2 And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
4 And the sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
5 ¶ And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.
6 But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east.
7 ¶ This is the sum of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived: one hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Then Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite,
10 the field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.
11 And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt at Beer Lahai Roi.

The facts of this passage are disputed by students of the Bible. Some maintain that Keturah became Abraham's wife while Sarah was still living - years and years before her death. They maintain that she was one of his concubines. The question lies in whether or not verse 1 is intended to be understood to have taken place chronologically after the events from the preceding chapters. It is true, the Hebrew text of verse 1 is not definite - could be either way. Verse 1 says, "Abraham again took a wife, and her name was Keturah." That verse immediately follows verse 67 of the previous chapter regarding Sarah's death. Let's face it, Abraham was an unusual man; he was 136 years old when Sarah died, perhaps he did start another family with Keturah after Sarah's death and then lived to be 175. Go Abraham! So...how long did Abraham grieve Sarah's death before he remarried. You know...people always ask questions like that. Maybe he took some time. But at 136, he must have felt he didn't have any time to waste. Take a look at the size of his family through Keturah. God told Abraham in Genesis 17:4-5 (see notes) as part of his covenant with him that he would be the "father of many nations." Indeed, that is so! The inheritance, however, he leaves only to Isaac, and the "seed" blessings are fulfilled through Isaac (and only Isaac, Genesis 21:12, see notes) as well.

For additional information regarding the Abrahamic Covenant, click here.

However, there is some interesting wording in verse 6 which causes us to entertain the notion that Keturah became one of Abraham's concubines prior to Sarah's death when it says, "But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he was still living he sent them eastward, away from Isaac his son, to the country of the east." In the Hebrew, both "sons" and "concubines" are, indeed, plural. These six verses are thus understood by some to indicate that Abraham had taken other concubines (second-class wives) while Sarah was still living; they maintain that Keturah was simply one of these concubines who gets special mention because of the number of her offspring. At 175, Abraham dies and is buried with Sarah by Isaac and Ishmael.

Of particular note regarding Abraham's family through Keturah, Abraham's son, Midian, is generally accepted to be the father of the Midianites, among whom Moses found refuge after fleeing Egypt. As a matter of fact, Moses married a Midianite. Regarding the other sons, speculation is made regarding the identity of their descendants, but scripture does not address them specifically enough to be able to draw reliable conclusions.

Whatever happened to Ishmael's boys? (Genesis 25:12-18)

12 Now this is the genealogy of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maidservant, bore to Abraham.
13 And these were the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
15 Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
16 These were the sons of Ishmael and these were their names, by their towns and their settlements, twelve princes according to their nations.
17 These were the years of the life of Ishmael: one hundred and thirty-seven years; and he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
18 (They dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.) He died in the presence of all his brethren.

Ishmael's offspring went on to populate much of the Arabian Peninsula. Between the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Keturah, many of the Arab tribes were descendants of Abraham. God had spoken to Hagar before Ishmael was born concerning Ishmael in Genesis 16:12 (see notes), "He shall be a wild man; His hand shall be against every man, And every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." The descendants of Ishmael ("twelve princes according to their nations" - verse 16) go on to plague Israel through much of their history. Ishmael gets no more mention in Genesis with the exception of Genesis 28:9 (see notes) regarding one of his daughters marrying Esau (Isaac's grandson). All of our attention now turns to Abraham's "seed" line, Isaac.

Rebekah has a tough pregnancy (Genesis 25:19-26)

19 This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac.
20 Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.
21 Now Isaac pleaded with the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.
23 ¶ And the LORD said to her:
“Two nations are in your womb,
Two peoples shall be separated from your body;
One people shall be stronger than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.”
24 ¶ So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau.
26 Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

At first Rebekah is barren, but after Isaac prays, she becomes pregnant with twins - rambunctious twins wrestling right there in the womb. Rebekah checks with God about this unusual activity going on inside her only to find out from God that this would be a pattern for her boys - two nations...struggling with each other (verse 23). One more important aspect of that verse - seniority would become an issue as Rebekah is told, "the older shall serve the younger."

"Look at the hair on that red baby!" the folks (might have) said of Esau (verse 25), the first of the twins to peak through. Hanging onto Esau's heel immediately came Jacob. That settles it; Esau is the firstborn, if not but by a few seconds. A couple of nicknames stick to these babies right from birth. Esau became known as "Seir" and his descendants are often known by that term. "Seir" is a slight variation from the Hebrew word for "hair." Esau got another nickname based on his reddish color - "Edom." That's based upon the Hebrew word for "red."

Incidentally, notice that Isaac was 60 years old when his two boys were born. He and Rebekah had now been married for 20 years.

A birthright is no big deal...when you're hungry (Genesis 25:27-34)

27 So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 ¶ Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom.
31 ¶ But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.”
32 ¶ And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?”
33 ¶ Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” ¶ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.
34 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Isaac and Rebekah had their favorites (verse 28); Isaac identified more with Esau, the big-game hunter while Rebekah preferred the calm, domestic child, Jacob. One day Esau comes in from hunting...starving - says he's about to die of hunger. Jacob had a big pot of red soup for which Esau agreed to trade his oldest-son birthright to Jacob - just for a serving. "What a deal!" Jacob thinks. "No big deal!" Esau reasons. Jacob makes Esau swear to this agreement. This decision could come back to haunt Esau. It is important to understand here that Esau did seal the deal on selling his birthright with an oath in this passage. That makes the eldest-son birthright legally the property of Jacob now - not Esau. The deceit that Jacob and Rebekah engage in at the perceived end of Isaac's life in Genesis 27 (see notes) to make it all official is just a formality. Jacob legally owned the birthright that Esau had sold him. That deceit is obviously very distasteful to us, but it did not result in Jacob getting something that wasn't rightfully his anyway. One more thing, verse 34 says, "Esau despised his birthright." There's another important piece of relevant information here - God's word to Rebekah in Genesis 25:23 (see above) telling her that "...the older shall serve the younger." So, actually, this soup episode simply confirms what had already been determined and stated.

Incidentally, verse 30 does that play on words again between the Hebrew word for "red" and Esau's nickname, "Edom," a Hebrew variation of the word for "red." We first saw the "red" reference with regard to his skin tone at birth in verse 25.

Oh no! Not the she's-my-sister routine again! (Genesis 26)

1 There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar.
2 ¶ Then the LORD appeared to him and said: “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I shall tell you.
3 Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; for to you and your descendants I give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.
4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 ¶ So Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”; for he was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” because he thought, “lest the men of the place kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to behold.”
8 Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife.
9 Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?” ¶ Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘Lest I die on account of her.’|”
10 ¶ And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might soon have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us.”
11 So Abimelech charged all his people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.”
12 ¶ Then Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD blessed him.
13 The man began to prosper, and continued prospering until he became very prosperous;
14 for he had possessions of flocks and possessions of herds and a great number of servants. So the Philistines envied him.
15 Now the Philistines had stopped up all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and they had filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we.”
17 ¶ Then Isaac departed from there and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham. He called them by the names which his father had called them.
19 ¶ Also Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found a well of running water there.
20 But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” So he called the name of the well Esek, because they quarreled with him.
21 Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also. So he called its name Sitnah.
22 And he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 ¶ Then he went up from there to Beersheba.
24 And the LORD appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you. I will bless you and multiply your descendants for My servant Abraham’s sake.”
25 So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 ¶ Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath, one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.
27 And Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and have sent me away from you?”
28 ¶ But they said, “We have certainly seen that the LORD is with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, between you and us; and let us make a covenant with you,
29 that you will do us no harm, since we have not touched you, and since we have done nothing to you but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the LORD.’ ”
30 ¶ So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31 Then they arose early in the morning and swore an oath with one another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 ¶ It came to pass the same day that Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well which they had dug, and said to him, “We have found water.”
33 So he called it Shebah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
34 ¶ When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
35 And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

Another famine, and Isaac heads south through Abimelech's land. It's deja vu all over again! Remember, Abraham tried this back in Genesis 12:10-20 (see notes) and again in Genesis 20 (see notes)? God warns Isaac to stay out of Egypt (verse 2) and reconfirms to him the territorial promises made to Abraham (verses 3-5). But just like his Dad, Abraham, Isaac tells the people there that Rebekah is his sister. It was a half truth when Abraham introduced Sarah that way, but an outright lie for Isaac regarding Rebekah. When Abimelech (probably the son of Abraham's contemporary) sees Isaac and Rebekah showing affection toward each other in a way that brothers and sisters aren't known for, he knows something is up. Abimelech rebukes Isaac for the deceit and makes a very interesting statement of the misidentification of Rebekah when he says in verse 10, "...One of the people might soon have lain with your wife..." Do you mean without Rebekah's permission...and so casually? Whoa...tough times - tough place to live...at least for a woman! After a confrontation, Isaac admits the truth about his relationship with Rebekah. Abimelech issues a decree to his people regarding the safety of Isaac and Rebekah while they are dwelling in their land, the land of the Philistines. Now, any fling with Rebekah by anyone other than Isaac will be his last (verse 11).

Isaac prospered so much in the land of the Philistines here that Abimelech asked Isaac to take his possessions and go. Isaac begins moving around, digging wells and setting up housekeeping. After a couple of territorial disputes with the locals over discovered water, Isaac finally settles in Beersheba. In verse 24, God speaks to Isaac once again to reconfirm the promises originally given to his father, Abraham. After recognizing God's blessings upon Isaac, Abimelech comes to make a peace treaty with Isaac.

This chapter ends with a disappointment for Isaac and Rebekah - the marriages of their son, Esau, to local women. You will recall that both Rebekah and Isaac's folks were northerners (Haran in Mesopotamia). Abraham had been very adamant with his instructions to the servant who was charged with finding a wife for Isaac when he commanded in Genesis 24:3, "...you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell." See the notes for Genesis 24 to gain more insight into the family thinking here regarding marriage. It would appear that Abraham understood his real-estate promises from God to mean that he was not to mix his seed with the seed of the local Canaanites. Now, Esau has married these local Canaanite women.

It's difficult to know what Isaac and Rebekah are thinking at this point in time about the "seed" promise that had passed from Abraham through Isaac here. Rebekah certainly must have recalled the word from the LORD in Genesis 25:23 (see above) telling her that "...the older shall serve the younger." We don't know whether or not she had ever shared this information with Isaac. Perhaps, at this point, Isaac and Rebekah are assuming that the "seed" promises that God had given to Abraham and had reconfirmed through Isaac (Genesis 17:19, see notes and Genesis 21:12, see notes) are to be fulfilled through their eldest son, Esau. Or...maybe Isaac was the only one thinking that, perhaps being unaware of the word from the Lord to Rebekah or the sold birthright (Genesis 25:27-34, see above). That being the case, they probably viewed Esau's marriage to the locals as an act that would compromise those promises. Ultimately, it would be the younger (but only by seconds) son, Jacob, through whom those "seed" promises would be fulfilled. See the notes of Genesis 28 for details on the reconfirmation of these promises through Jacob. Oh, well...all's well that ends well.

The Jacob-Esau birthright saga continues into Genesis 27 (see notes).