(Genesis 25:1) Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. (2) And she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. (3) And Jokshan begat 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.
"THEN" Abraham took a wife, obviously after the death of Sarah and probably after the marriage of Isaac, as well. Keturah gave Abraham six more sons in his very old age, it would seem at first glance. Obviously, she could have been much younger than Abraham, but we were told earlier in scripture that Abraham's body was dead when Sarah conceived Isaac, and that he was very old and well stricken with age when his servant went to find a wife for Isaac. I have to believe as some of the old Bible scholars suggest that Keturah was a concubine and bore children much earlier in life, while Sarah was alive, and she became Abraham's wife after the death of Sarah. Later in scripture, in 1 Chronicles 1:32, Keturah is called his concubine. She was a concubine who probably gave him these children earlier, and became his wife at this time after the death of Sarah.
(5) And Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac.
Isaac was Abraham's only begotten son of his wife, Sarah, and the heir to the promise, and Abraham had given him all he had, especially his right to the land of Canaan, and his "flocks, herds, silver, gold, menservants, maidservants, camels, and donkeys", as had been reported by his servant to Rebekah's family. However, Abraham must have reserved some for himself, as he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines:
(6) But Abraham gave gifts to the sons of the concubines which Abraham had; and while he yet lived, sent them away from Isaac his son, eastward to the east country.
Abraham remembered his other sons, these sons of Keturah above mentioned, as well as Hagar's son Ishmael. While he was still living, to avoid disputes after his death, he gave his sons their inherited gifts and sent all his other sons eastward away from his son, Isaac. The land of promise was to be only Isaac's.
(7) And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, one hundred and seventy-five years. (8) Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and was gathered to his people.
Abraham gave up the ghost, or breathed his last breath and died at 175 years of age, "in a good old age". While that seems quite old in our day and age, Adam Clarke in his "Commentary on the Bible", points out that Abraham died at the youngest age of all the patriarchs. That word "good" is not to be interpreted to mean that Abraham lived to an extremely old age, but that it was a good and full age. His life had been full and satisfying and he was ready to depart this world. He died at a good age, not having to endure a total decrepitness of mind and body. Being gathered to one's people was probably a way of saying that he joined those ancestors who went before him in death. There was much discussion in the old commentaries about the exact meaning of the phrase because surely Abraham wasn't literally gathered to his ancestors who were buried in Chaldea and not in Canaan, nor did it mean he was gathered to Sarah who was alone in a cave. Some said it meant he was "gathered to the spirits of just men made perfect". More recent scholars really make a big deal of the wording "was gathered" as opposed to other places where a person "shall be gathered" as if to say this proves whether we go to heaven when we die or wait to be resurrected at the end. I have to believe this was just a saying and it meant Abraham went the way of death as all his people before him went.
(9) And 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 Mamre, (10) The field which Abraham purchased from the sons of Heth; there Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.
Even though Ishmael and his mother had been sent away from Abraham's family, the brothers came together at this time to bury their father in the cave in the field Abraham had previously purchased when he needed a place to bury Sarah.
(11) And it came to pass, after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai Roi.
God blessed Abraham's son Isaac, the heir to the promise of God. Isaac lived by the well Lahai Roi, which was the same as Beer Lahai Roi, the place where the angel of the Lord came to Hagar and told her about the son she was carrying.
(12) Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bore to Abraham: (13) And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: The firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, (14) And Mishma, Dumah, and Massa, (15) Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. (16) These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns and by their castles, twelve princes according to their nations.
Ishmael had twelve sons, heads of twelve tribes of the Arab nation. God had promised Hagar that He would bless Ishmael and make him fruitful, and that he would beget twelve princes and become a great nation (Genesis 17:20), and so it was. Many of these sons, or princes, will be mentioned later in the Bible. Nebajoth and Kedar are mentioned in Isaiah. I have read that in old Jewish writings, the Arabic language is most frequently called the language of Kedar. Dumah is a place mentioned in Isaiah and was probably named after Ishmael's son. Interestingly, Tema and Temanites were mentioned in Job, meaning that, chronologically, I should have been studying Abraham before Job! Jetur and Naphish are mentioned in 1 Chronicles as part of the Hagarites who warred against the Israelites. The descendants of Kedemah may have lived at Kedemoth, a place mentioned in Deuteronomy.
(17) And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, one hundred and thirty-seven years, and he gave up the ghost and died, and was gathered to his people. (18) And they dwelt from Havilah to Shur, that is before Egypt as you go toward Assyria; and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
Ishmael lived to 137 years of age, and also gave up the ghost and was gathered to his people, as was Abraham. I believe these have to be merely expressions that were used in the day and were not meant to have a significant meaning as to the kind of life each man lived. I am picturing "giving up the ghost" as giving up the spirit of life or breath, breathing one's last breath. As was discussed above, I believe that being gathered to one's people must just mean to go the way of death as his ancestors before him. "They" in verse 18 would have to be the descendants of Ishmael and not his people before him. The Ishmaelites lived in the country that extended from east to west from Havilah to Shur. From what I have read and viewed on a map, this looks to be the northern region between Havilah arcing northward (as you go toward Assyria) to Shur next to Egypt. I found an excellent map at http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-wilderness-of-shur-ishmaelites-midianites-amalekites.htm with references to other scriptures which shows where this region must have been:
Ishmael died in the presence of all his brethren. This is a fulfillment of prophecy from Genesis 16:12 when the angel of the Lord told Hagar that Ishmael would "be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." Among "all" his brethren probably means that he lived his wild and turbulent life and held his own in an area among Abraham's other children. He died as he lived, in the presence of or amongst all his brethren. Many of the old commentaries suggest that the pronoun "he" from verse 18 should have been read "it" and it meant that his lot fell among all his brethren. They believe this because although verse 17 speaks of Ishmael, verse 18 speaks of the place where the Ishmaelites dwelt. Additionally, the same word "naphal" that is translated as "died" here also means to divide by lot, and was used that way in another verse in the Bible; Joshua 23:4 states, "Behold, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even to the great sea westward." So perhaps the true meaning of verse 18b is that his lot or inheritance was assigned him by God to be in the midst of all Abraham's other children. It is true that even though Ishmael was not the promised seed, God blessed him and made of him a great nation that lives today. Indeed Ishmael is the father of the Arab nation!
(19) And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac; (20) And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian.
We had a genealogy of Abraham's son Ishmael, and now begins one of Isaac. We have a brief genealogical synopsis of what we have read of Isaac to this point.
(21) And Isaac entreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD was entreated for him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Now we pick up the story of Isaac's family after he and Rebekah were married. Apparently they lived 20 years together as man and wife before having a child. We were told that Isaac was 40 when he married Rebekah, and later in scripture we are told that he was 60 when his sons were born (verse 26). Isaac earnestly prayed to the Lord for Rebekah to have a child and the Lord granted his request and she conceived.
(22) And the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it be well, why am I this way?" And she went to inquire of the LORD. (23) And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from your body; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the older shall serve the younger."
Apparently Rebekah felt a commotion inside her that did not feel normal, so she asked the Lord if everything was okay. The Lord told her there were two babies in her womb, two different babies, not identical twins. They would be different in appearance and in manner of life. More than just twins, God was prophesying that from the babies would spring two different nations. Two babies struggling in the womb would become two nations struggling with each other, one stronger than the other in physical strength, but the older would come to serve the younger.
24) And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. (25) And the first came out red, like a hairy garment all over; and they called his name Esau.
Sure enough, Rebekah delivered twins. The first baby was red and hairy all over, and they called him "Esau", which literally means "rough" or "hairy".
(26) And after that his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
The second baby came out with his hand grabbing hold of the first baby's heel, the perfect picture of Jacob trying to pull back his older brother so that he might be the first, which was of course, a prophetic picture of what was to happen. Even Jacob's name was prophetic; it literally means "supplanter". To supplant is to overthrow by tripping up or to take the place of another by scheming or strategy. His parents may have named him Jacob only because of the way he grabbed his brother's heel and it just looked like he was trying to pull his brother back to be first, sort of like parents today might say, "Oh, isn't that cute; he wants to supplant his brother". However, God had told Rebekah that two nations struggled within her womb and that the older would serve the younger, so she may have seen the action of baby Jacob as prophecy fulfillment in the making and named him accordingly.
(27) And the boys grew; and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
I was tempted to use "better" adjectives for my study, but since the original words can mean a variety of things, I decided to leave them as the KJV translators translated them and I would explore all the meanings of the original words. Esau was a cunning hunter. The original word for "cunning" is "yada", which has a huge variety of meanings, but they all stem from the root word "to know". So he really knew about hunting; he was a skillful and experienced hunter. He was a man of the field, an outdoorsman. Jacob was a "plain" man. It is very interesting that the KJV translators used the word "plain" to define the original "tam", as it doesn't seem to begin to define the word completely. They were probably striving for the sense of "gentle" or "mild", which would be considered in contrast to the skillful hunter and outdoorsman, but they are considered secondary meanings of the word. "Tam" is most often used in other scriptures as "perfect and complete".
(28) And Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
This scripture always bothered me. How could a parent love one child over another? But when you consider what we have already learned about the boys, it may make sense that each parent was more attached to one son more than the other. Esau was Isaac's firstborn and he brought him good venison to eat. Isaac evidently really enjoyed that and Esau probably sought to please his father in this way. On the other hand, Jacob was probably more at home with his mother and of a milder and gentler disposition. It may have been natural for the parents to be a little more attached to one child over the other, but there may have been more to this, and there are different ways to look at it. Rebekah had received the prophetic word from God that the older son would eventually serve the younger son. Perhaps she saw Jacob as blessed by God and she loved and sought to nurture the son chosen by God. However, Adam Clarke wrote an interesting spin on this: "This is an early proof of unwarrantable parental attachment to one child in preference to another. Isaac loved Esau, and Rebekah loved Jacob; and in consequence of this the interests of the family were divided, and the house set in opposition to itself. The fruits of this unreasonable and foolish attachment were afterwards seen in a long catalogue of both natural and moral evils among the descendants of both families." Perhaps the moral lesson in this is that the parents should not have loved one over the other, but as God gives prophecy as events will happen and not necessarily as they should happen, and also because He makes things work to the good for those who love and follow Him, the blessings will follow Jacob, but there will be much strife.
(29) And Jacob made a stew, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. (30) And Esau said to Jacob, "Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am faint." Therefore his name was called Edom.
Jacob, perhaps being the homebody that he was or maybe for some other reason, but certainly by Godly design, had made a stew. Esau came in from the field, having toiled but obviously having nothing to eat, and he was faint, we can assume from hunger. We are told that he was called "Edom" which literally means "red" because of this red stew. We were previously told that he was born red and hairy. Esau was the name for "hairy", and Edom was the name for "red".
(31) And Jacob said, "Sell me this day your birthright." (32) And Esau said, "Look, I am at the point of dying, so what profit will this birthright do to me?" (33) And Jacob said, "Swear to me this day." And he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. (34) Then Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils, and he ate and drank, and rose up, and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright.
Jacob obviously took advantage of the fact that Esau was starving to death, as he had put it, and it can be argued that he did not act righteously. However, it must be noted that Esau had the choice to accept or decline Jacob's proposal. Could he have not said, "Are you crazy, giving up my birthright for a meal?" and grabbed some bread or a fruit from the field to alleviate his hunger? Jacob didn't force Esau to sell his birthright, but perhaps pressured him to decide just how important it really was. Maybe as Isaac's favorite, Esau didn't consider the "birthright" as necessary, but it was very important to Jacob. The birthright generally meant a double portion of inheritance, authority over the rest of the family, and his father's blessing. If that was all there was to it, perhaps Esau was right from a worldly and temporal point of view. What worldly things in this life really are that important, especially if Esau really thought he was starving to death? But there were also spiritual blessings. Exodus 13:2 and 22:29 show that the firstborn children were consecrated to God. When you really think about how God determined where and when we would be born, and that He determined who would be the firstborn in each family, how could we just throw that away? The parental blessing in this birthright was especially important with the promises of the Messiah and the inheritance of the land of Canaan. Rebekah knew that these things were designed for Jacob; she knew that the older son would serve the younger, and she had probably told Jacob of it, as well. Jacob seized this opportunity to get the birthright, and it was obviously not as important to Esau, who "despised" his birthright. Furthermore, he is called a profane person in Hebrews 12:16 because he sold his birthright "for one morsel of meat". Other meanings of the original word translated as "profane" here are "heathenish", "wicked", and "ungodly". Esau totally dismissed the spiritual things of God, as would a heathen.
Although God decides our birth order, it is obvious that He still gives us the choice to do with it what we will. Esau saw no value in it, and Jacob sought it and fought for it all his life, as we will see in coming scriptures. It must also be pointed out that God Himself may choose whomever He pleases to do His will as in the case of David, the youngest of several brothers. As a matter of fact, God often uses the weakest things to confound the mighty (1 Corinthians 1:27). So while we should never look upon the position God gave us in this world lightly, we must never consider it a hopeless lot in life. Acts 17:26 states, "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation." Therefore, as I always like to say, "You were born for such a time as this!" That, of course, is from the story of Esther, but how true that is for each and every one of us. God chose this time for us, so when you think of all that is going on in the world today, remember that God purposed that each one of us would be here now at this particular time in all of history, and in our particular place in the world. How awesome is that to contemplate His purpose for us at this time?
The more I have studied and thought about this, the more instances I have found where the younger sibling seemed to rise above the firstborn. You could go all the way back to Cain and Abel! Then there's Ishmael and Isaac, and Esau and Jacob, and still to come in scripture, you might consider Leah and Rachel in this category. It was interesting to read some of the different takes on this, especially from some sites that were more sympathetic toward Islam. It was insinuated that the entire book of Genesis was about the reversal of the birth order law through some devious sort of predestination and that the poor firstborn were losers through no fault of their own. I believe the lesson in all these cases is that while some are born with special blessings of God, as in being the firstborn, or being one of God's chosen people, it is still our choice whether we desire the things of God or worldly things. Just because one might be firstborn and a blessed child of God's chosen people does not automatically guarantee him a place of honor with God. In the New Testament the Pharisees argued that they were children of Abraham and they didn't see the need for Jesus to make them free. Jesus in John 8:37 agreed that they were indeed the seed of Abraham, yet He told them their father was the devil! When John the Baptist preached about the coming of Christ (Matthew 3 and Luke 3), he told them they could not rely on the fact that Abraham was their father, but that they must repent of their sins. Additionally, even if one is born without certain apparent blessings of God, he may still come to God through salvation in Christ; that is the Good News that fills the New Testament! It is always amazing to me to see God's love and His plan from the beginning, that is, Jesus and salvation in Christ, in the Old Testament! Indeed God has never changed!
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