Bible Discussion Thread

Such and interesting chapter. And the comments were informative. Even though I am very familiar with this story, I am learning new things each time I revisit. It appears that Abraham married another of his concubines, Keturah. We do not know how long she was part of Abraham's household, but she was young enough to bear 6 sons which probably took about 12 to 15 years or so. Verse 6 said that he had sons from his concubines, so he may have fathered sons from women other than Keturah, as well.

These sons were old enough to set out on their own. Abraham knew his time of death was near. that is why he gave everything to Isaac (the inheritance and blessing) and made sure that the sons from Keturah were well gifted so they could start out on their own away from Isaac and Rebekah. These sons of Keturah settled East of where Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau lived (west of the Jordan River) (The twins were born when Abraham was 160 or so, since Isaac was 60 when they were born.) Abraham lived almost 50 years longer than Sarah. So we do not know if these sons were all born after Sarah died or before, or before and after, since Keturah was already his concubine, but made her his wife. There is a lot we do not know about this time of Abraham's last 50 years of life.

Just as Ishmael was sent away after the child of promise (Isaac) was born, these sons of Keturah were sent away because the promised was through Isaac's family line. We do not know the ethnicity of Keturah like we did with Hagar (Egyptian), but most likely she was not from Abraham's kin, Nahor. Abraham knew God who the promised lineage should descend from and he protected that. Abraham lived to a ripe old age of 175. Jacob and Esau would have known him, being 15 when he died. He was buried in the cave with the body of Sarah. Thus it became known as the Cave of the Patriarchs and is still there, though it may not be able to be accessed by the public.