25:4 The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldaah. [2] Rashi and Rabbi Menachem bar Shlomo (Midrash Sekhel Tov) ad loc., actually claim that the term concubines is singular, but this seems indefensible. 1:17-27, Gen. 20:12) You need to understand Here a redaction-critical solution seems best. 9, vs. 7 saying "Are you not like the Children of Ethiopia to me, O Children of Israel"[4]. 17:6, 7, 8-16; 18:5), is in the neighborhood of Horeb; if the locality Massah and Meribah (17:7) is to be found in the region of Kadesh-Barnea or is identical with it (Num. (The Midrash offers different reasons why she was given an alternate name here such as that it reflected her righteousness that her deeds were as aromatic as incense (ketoret).). : 'ih Translated: woman, wife[10]). Keturah, one of Abrahams three wives, with her children (right); Sarah and Isaac are in the center, Hagar and Ishmael are on the left. First Chronicles 1:32 refers to Keturah as Abraham's concubine, so there is some debate as to the exact nature of their relationship. Letushim -- "hammered ones," descendant of Abraham and, 28. And why the circumlocution, why not mention the womens namesunless the implication is that Abraham had many concubines, not just them (or not them at all.). She is styled "Abraham's concubine" ( 1Chronicles 1:32 ). (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS NIV), 1 Chronicles 1:33The sons of Midian: Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah. Yet the Torah tells us that Abraham in his extreme old age marries again and fathers several more children. [17][18] The name Keturah was alternatively said to be derived from the ketoret (meaning "incense" in Hebrew) due to her deeds being as pleasing as incense. happened.) | GotQuestions.org, How many wives did Abraham have? Answer Keturah was Abraham's second wife, following the death of Sarah, his first wife ( Genesis 23:2; 25:1 ). a son of Abraham and Keturah. 1 Chronicles 1:32 (and also Genesis 25:6) shows us that Keturah was not considered to be of the same dignity as Sarah who, indeed, was the mother of the son of promise, and, for obvious reasons, the sons of Abraham's concubines were separated from Isaac. (Egypt). Do We See Any Gospel Connections in the Book of Numbers? Following a simple reading of the text, however, Rashbam, Radak, and Ibn Ezra state unequivocally that Keturah is not Hagar, but a different woman. fa: "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". Yoqshan. Some, but not all, Jewish philosophers identify Keturah with Hagar, stating that Abraham sought her out after Sarah's death. Thus, Keturah and her children were by far secondary to Isaac and played no direct role in the story of Israel. ), Furthermore, one of Abrahams children was Midian, presumably the progenitor of the nation of Midian. Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Seeing the Letter Tet in a Dream: 9th Anniversary, Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship, By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use, https://thetorah.com/article/our-stepmother-keturah. Her nationality is unknown. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before whose name was Hagar. If the mention of Keturah had been placed early in the Abraham narrative, his complaints about having no heir would have been false, and there would have been no need for him to father Ishmael with Hagar. window.location.replace(""); Black History and its Prophecy of the Races at 3371 . A woman Abraham sent for from the home country? Her nationality is Ethiopian as she was the mother of Sheba and the Medians whose descendant, Jethro,or Ragu'el or Reu'el the Ethiopian priest of Median begot a daughter, Zipporah, who, in the Scriptures, was referred to as the Ethiopian wife of Moses. First, the wording another [va-yosef] in 25:1 teaches that these marriages were in fulfillment of a divine command; the proponents of this view learn this from Isa. Who was Keturah in the Bible? Both Genesis and First Chronicles record that Keturah bore Abraham six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. [20], According to the African writer Olaudah Equiano, the 18th-century English theologian John Gill believed the African people were descended from Abraham and Keturah[relevant?]. Noun (qitor) refers to thick smoke. He is the author of Images of Joshua in the Bible and their Reception (De Gruyter 2016) and editor (with Jacob L. Wright) of Archaeology and History of Eighth Century Judah (SBL 2018). Multi-Version Concordance Ketu'rah (4 Occurrences). deserts of Africa, Asia, and Arabia in search of a city whose builder and When the Children Our synagogue says Mincha shortly before sunset and Maariv almost immediately after Ashkenazi vs Sephardic Jews: Their Differences & Origins, Mincha and Maariv Together; Earliest time for Maariv, Behind the Scenes of Netflixs Jewish Matchmaking. Where is Keturah?". Although the miracle of Abraham and Sarah bearing a child when they were 100 and 90 was quite emphasized in the Torah (Gen. 18:12, 21:7), no doubt once Abraham regained his vigor, it remained with him for some time to come (Haamek Davar). | GotQuestions.org, How many sons did Abraham have? Bildad. The Torah writes nothing about her background and origin although if she was a wife of Abraham and mother to six of his children, she must have been a pretty important person! Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with Zipporah was one of seven Midianite sisters that mistook Moses for an Egyptian after he saved them from the men at the well ( Exodus 2:16-19 ). Have an update or correction? However, when they saw Josephs crown suspended above Jacobs coffin, they took their own crowns and also suspended them above the coffin. The Torah likewise records that Abraham gave gifts to the children of his concubines and sent them off during his lifetime (Gen. 25:6). /hebrew/4080.htm - 6k, 3435. of The Rabbis further learn from Abraham that even if a man has children while he is young, he should still take another wife in his old age and beget further offspring (Gen. Rabbah 61:3). The biblical account is as follows: And there was a famine in the land: and Abram How The Nation Of The Troglodytes Were Derived From Abraham By Keturah. It's rarely noticed that Abraham complained that he was too old to have Isaac (Genesis 17:17), but when Isaac was 36 years old (compare 17:17 to 23:1) Sarah died, and some undisclosed time after, Abraham married Keturah and sired another six sons. Her nationality is unknown. Int. And these mingled with each other, and their name was called Arabs, and Ishmaelite's. There's no mistaking the typical look of an Arab today. Gen. 26 lists the six children that Keturah bore to Abraham: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah, to which the midrash applies the verse (Ps. Its stated purpose was to "revise and codify the nationality laws of the United States into a comprehensive nationality code." The law established the conditions necessary to meet for one to acquire U.S. citizenship through the nature of one's birth (known as . religions of the world. If this verse is referring to Keturah, why is the word plural,[2] and why does the terminology switch from wife (ishah) to concubine (pilegesh)? Even as in biblical times, Shemitic countries today While the Israelites / Hebrews were captives in Egypt, Moses killed an Egyptian who was striking a Hebrew, for which offense Pharaoh sought to kill Moses. Some time after Sarahs death (Gen 23:2) and Isaacs marriage to Rebekah (Gen 24:67), Abraham remarries, and Isaac gets a stepmother: This brief mention of the expansion of Abrahams family raises a number of questions. 3. Word Origin from the same as madon Definition a son of Abraham and Keturah, also his desc. Abraham and Sarah away, giving them treasure and some Egyptian maidservants. See Antiq. In its portrayal of the Civil War, the film presents a shining view of the Confederacy. Placing the Keturah account after the birth of Isaac but before Sarahs death would not have worked either. 13. From . This implies that the Rabbis understood that Sarah died before Abraham remarried. Genealogies elsewhere in the Bible are similarly symbolic. and R. Yosef Karo (Beit Yosef, YD 275). He lives with his wife and family in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel. ", https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/keturah, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keturah&oldid=1137525950, This page was last edited on 5 February 2023, at 02:32. Qeturah. Of course this wasnt unheard of in that era, while human lifespans had not yet shrunk down to their present levels. The politics of the film becomes apparent as soon as the arrival . Modern day She is styled "Abraham's concubine" ( 1 Chronicles 1:32 ). Rabbi Zev Farber is the Senior Editor of TheTorah.com, and a Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute's Kogod Center. Genesis 25:1 And Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah/k/ketu'rah.htm - 7k, Epher (4 Occurrences) Easton's Bible Dictionary A calf. "Entry for 'KETURAH'". (see the book Ethiopia the classic case pg.47). [1] All translations of biblical verses are from NJPS (with adjustments). beautiful Shemitic wife to ravish her, and God had to intervene to rescue her. 47:19), then . Generations later, Moses would marry the daughter of Jethro the Midianite, and other descendants of Jethro converted as well (see Judges 1:16). CHAPTER 15. Transliteration: Medan Phonetic Spelling: (med-awn') Short Definition: Medan. The Torah now calls her "Keturah," meaning "bound," for she had kept her faithful bond to Abraham. Rabbah 2:13). established Egypt, referred to in Psalms 105 and 106 refer to as the land of Transliteration: Qeturah Phonetic Spelling: (ket-oo-raw') Short Definition: Keturah. and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had. (Gen. 12), Beset by plagues, this Hamitic king sent In 2012, he left his rabbinic post to create TheTorah.com. Abraham and his beautiful wife Sarai wandered the deserts of Africa, Asia, and Arabia in search of a city "whose builder and maker was God" Himself. Transliteration: Yoqshan Phonetic Spelling: (yok-shawn') Short Definition: Jokshan. Genesis and First Chronicles also list seven of her grandsons (Sheba, Dedan, Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah). Ask the Rabbi fi:Keturah 5. Second, the wifes new name of Keturah does not necessarily teach that this was a different woman; rather, it was a name given to Hagar in recognition of her good qualities (see below). (Beyond that, Midian had a more checkered history. Christian Truth. In the text, the daughter of an Egyptian priest falls in love with Joseph, turns to the God of Israel, marries Joseph, and is saved by God and some of Joseph's brothers from attack by . Get Your Bible Minute in Your Inbox Every Morning, incense, the wife of Abraham, whom he married probably after Sarah's death ( Genesis 25:1-6 ), by whom he had six sons, whom he sent away into the east country. She freely married Abraham and became his bona fide wife. Courtesy ofWikimedia Commons. Keturah, on the other hand, was not a slave; she was a free woman. 29); her deeds were as fine as incense (ketoretTanhuma, Hayyei Sarah 8). Why do women seem to have a small role in the Bible. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from Bible Gateway, a division of The Zondervan Corporation, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA, including commercial communications and messages from partners of Bible Gateway. unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, Beset by plagues, this Hamitic king sent After Sarah dies, Abraham marries Keturah. CHAPTER 15. Wikimedia. According to one view, Abraham remarried after the death of Sarah and had a total of three wives: Sarah, Hagar, and Keturah. On February 8, 1915, D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, a landmark film in the history of cinema, premieres at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles. The Bible And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said [7] See Robert Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Biblical World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977). Though she is called a "concubine," this may have been to distinguish her sons as well as Ishmael from Isaac the son of promise, Genesis 25:6; 1 Chronicles 1:32; Galatians 4:22,30. concubine, Hagar. These are by Herodotus called Barbarians, and perhaps were derived from the Syrians and Arabians, the posterity of Abraham by Keturah. Strong's Numbers. ( Genesis 25:1 ; 1Chronicles 1:32 ) (B.C. thee alive. According to the Book of Genesis, she was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah (then known as Sarai), whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abram (later renamed Abraham) as a wife to bear him a child.Abraham's firstborn son, through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs. menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. Int. One of the most important and influential men in the Old Testament is Abraham, affectionately called father by three major religions of the world. Third, the word pilegshim (concubines) in Gen. 25:6 is spelled deficiently, without the letter yod. "Keturah, Hiram and Aquila"and thou and I, Momus. All of Keturahs sons were the heads of nations (Gen. Rabbah 61:5). She was perfumed (mekuteret) with commandments and good deeds (Gen. Rabbah 61:4); she was (through her good deeds) more savory (mekuteret) than all manner of spices (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer [ed. Transliteration: Yishbaq Phonetic Spelling: (yish-bawk') Short Definition: Ishbak. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba, and Dedan. . A Parasha Pregnant with the Past, Present and Future of Israels Protagonists, Abraham and Lots Bedouin-Style Hospitality, The Song of the Sea and the History of Ancient Israel and Judah, Manassehs Genealogies: Why They Change Between Numbers, Joshua, and Chronicles,, Decoding the Table of Nations: Reading it as a Map,. A Talmudic tradition claims this is another name for Hagar who remarried Abraham in his old age. (1 Chron. Talmud, Sanhedrin 59b. A type of non-halakhic literary activitiy of the Rabbis for interpreting non-legal material according to special principles of interpretation (hermeneutical rules). the lineage of the female. a son of Abraham and Keturah. son Ishmael, but Hams. Help us elevate the voices of Jewish women. Please support us. Nouns (qetoret), (qitter), (muqtar) and (qeturah) refer to incense. There is a popular theory common among Muslims and some Christians that Arabian Muslims are direct descendants of Ishmael. When a person secures his valuables with his seal, they are still shut when he opens his treasury. First, whether the spelling is defective or plene should make no difference in meaning. We know little about Keturah, other than her name and the names of the sons she bore to Abraham ( Genesis 25:2; 1 Chronicles 1:33 ). "Caravans, Kenites, and Casus Belli: Enmity and Alliance in the Song of Deborah. Her father Jethro was the priest of Midian, and it was he that gave Zipporah to Moses to marry. Abraham had all these when he remarried after the death of his wife Sarah. As a result of his unwavering faith in God, Abraham was promised by God to be a leader to all the nations of the world. Although Abraham took Keturah as a spouse, she was never his true wife. But instead, as the customs of the time permitted, Sarah gave her female servant Hagar to Abraham as a concubine or secondary wife. [9], ca:Quetur All rights reserved. (see the book Ethiopia the classic case pg.47). out-of-wedlock son, but they still want to claim lineage from the Pharaohs, who Keva . According to Genesis, Abraham married his In opposition to the view that the offspring of Keturah were the realization of the Lords promise to Abraham, another approach presents them as perpetually menacing Israel. The children of Keturah and of Ishmael did not receive Abrahams blessing; the midrash stresses that this was an intentional decision on Abrahams part. ISHBAK. This is done by introducing another wife This is not to be understood biographically. In other words, the biblical authors use the description of a marriage with Abraham to connect certain tribes with Abraham (Midianites, Dedanites, etc.). script>. The Lord commanded Sarah to give Hagar to Abraham for his wife and commanded Abraham to take Hagar as his wife (see D&C 132:3435). Yishbaq. ke-tu'-ra, ke-too'-ra (qeTurah; Chettoura, "incense"): The second wife of Abraham (Genesis 25:1; 1Chronicles 1:32). 7745 . Keturah (Hebrew: , Qr, possibly meaning incense; Arabic: ) was a wife or a concubine of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. Therefore, the editor made the only choice available to him: he put the Keturah account after the death of Sarah.[8]. Dr. (Viewed on May 1, 2023) . WWW.BLACKSINTHEBIBLE.NET. While she is introduced early in Exodus, very little is said about her. View Site General Editor. Isaac became Abrahams sole heir, and Ishmael and Hagar were banished to the desert, though God promised that Ishmael would raise up a great nation of his own. The Rabbis ask: What gifts did Abraham nevertheless give the sons of Keturah? The Torah introduces Keturah as an , wife (Gen 25:1), and yet the same passage also refers to Abrahams concubines and their children: Who are these concubines? themselves Shemitic through Abraham rather than Hamitic by Hagar. The Rabbis describe her as a woman of virtue, for which she was worthy of being joined to Abraham. Keturah is the second wife of Abraham, whom he took after the death of his first wife Sarah, and who bore him six additional sons, namely Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah (Genesis 25:1-2). Abraham and Keturah had six sons. Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and (2.) Ham. The Egyptians were direct descendants of Ham through his son, Mizraim In the Septuagint, Kush is regularly translated as , Ethiopia, the kingdom south of Egypt (modern day Sudan). see HEBREW zamar. were not from Ishmaels line at all, but existed prior to Abraham, much less his 1 Chronicles 1:33 chapter context similar meaning copy save. /e/epher.htm - 8k, Medan (2 Occurrences) Easton's Bible Dictionary Contention, the third son of Abraham by Keturah (Genesis 25:2). Abrahams affair with his African handmaiden led to an entire race Episode 91: Israel at 75: Voices of Protest. that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she The Identity of the Kushite Woman He died at the age of 175. The name Keturah lends itself to a number of Rabbinic interpretations. What did he do? Before moving on, it should be mentioned that Keturah is called Abraham's concubine, not his full wife (Genesis 25:6, I Chronicles 1:32). see HEBREW yada'. (Genesis 25:20) So, Abraham was about 140 years old. Surely what He wants in His world will happen. And so it happened that after Abrahams death, God revealed Himself to Isaac and blessed him, as his father had intended to do (Gen. Rabbah 61:6). We rely on the support of readers like you. When God wished to give the Torah, He offered it to the children of Keturah and to the Ishmaelites, but they refused to accept it, since they could not abandon the robbery and theft on which their lives were based (Midrash Tannaim on Deut. Hebrew Women in Egypt: Midrash and Aggadah, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, Copyright 19982023, Jewish Women's Archive. She is "of good sense and beautiful in looks," while he is "hard and evil in his deeds" (v. 3). Since this presumably occurred after Isaacs marriage at 40 (25:20), and Ishmael was 14 years older than Isaac (compare Gen. 16:16 to 21:5), she bore Ishmael at least 54 years before her remarriage yet still, she gave birth to six more children. Keturah's sons were said to have represented the Arab tribes who lived south and east of Israel (Genesis 25:1-6). [5] The Book of Jubilees also supports the conclusion that Keturah and Hagar were two different people, by stating that Abraham waited until after Hagar's death before marrying Keturah. This notion is based on 25:6: But to Abrahams sons by concubines Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and he sent them away from his son Isaac; and this expulsion is both in this world and in the world to come (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, chap. was very fair. 33:2). Abraham didnt marry Hagar. so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy concubine, Hagar. Her ancestry is not mentioned, although she was presumably a local Canaanite. Fooled by this deception, the African King took Abrahams Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Let us know. Although Abraham was quite insistent that Isaac not marry a Canaanite (24:3), and Rebecca later insisted the same for Jacob (27:46), that was due to the importance of fathering the Jewish people. What nationality was Keturah in the Bible? The Rabbis championing this position emphasize that these offspring do not follow the spiritual way of Abraham; moreover, since they already received their inheritance from him, they are not entitled to make any further demands. The name Keturah comes from the verb (qatar) meaning to produce pleasant smoke: The verb (qatar) probably originally meant to rise up but came to denote the rising up of sacrificial smoke, which in turn commonly marked celebrations and surplus, and smelled pleasant after roasts or incense. And it came to pass, We know surprisingly little about Keturah. These offspring express the fulfillment of the blessing given by God to Abraham in Gen. 12:3: and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you, for thirty families came from Abraham: the twelve chieftains from Ishmael, the sixteen descendants of Keturah, and (Gen. 25:23) two nations are in your womb (Tanhuma [ed. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. (Egypt). 2174b, 2175. wife, take her, and go thy way. 2. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? According to the Hebrew Bible, Keturah or Ketura (Hebrew: , ModernQtura TiberianQrh; "Incense") was the woman whom Abraham, the patriarch of the Israelites, married after the death of his wife, Sarah. Chapter 34. do not hold females in high regard. Why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Keturah was one of Abrahams wives. Gen 25:1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. [8], Louis Feldman has said "Josephus records evidence of the prolific non-Jewish polymath Alexander Polyhistor, who, in turn, cites the historian Cleodemus Malchus, who states that two of the sons of Abraham by Keturah joined Heracles' campaign in Africa, and that Heracles, without doubt the greatest Greek hero of them all, married the daughter of one of them."[9]. (Note the inclusio at the end of verse 4, all these are the children of Keturah.), The second unit confirms Isaac as Abrahams sole heir by having him send away his other sons. She "is styled "Abraham's concubine" (1 Chr. They probably settled among the sons of Cush, on the north-west coast of the Persian Gulf. > From the Venice Haggadah of 1609. Therefore, the Arabs of Islam call According to the Book of Genesis, Abraham married Keturah after the death of his first wife, Sarah. First Chronicles 1:32 refers to Keturah as Abraham's concubine, so there is some debate as to the exact nature of their relationship. 1:3): and whatever he does prospers (Gen. Rabbah 61:1). the area was also settled by Abraham's sons through Keturah (Gen. 25:1-4), the 12 sons of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13-16), and finally the sons of Esau (Gen. 36:1-19), all descendents of Abraham (also Semitic). There is no indication when that happened, other than during his lifetime. One day while he sat by a well, Reuel's daughters came to water their father's flocks. Oops! Though the Torah describes them separately, the rabbis often identify Keturah with Hagar, who they state came back to remarry Abraham after Sarah's death. In Genesis 15 we read about Abrahams doubts and concerns. Radak deals with these problems by arguing that all of the named women who bear Abrahams childrenSarah, Hagar, and Keturahare his wives: If these three named women are wives, Radak suggests that the concubines are a separate group of women, unnamed in the Torah, who bear still more children with Abraham: Although Radaks approach recognizes and solves some of the interpretive problems, it only does so partially, as it leaves open the question of what happens to Keturahs sons, and why Abraham only sends away the sons of the concubines. Keturah (Hebrew: , Qr, possibly meaning "incense";[1] Arabic: ) was a wife[2] and a concubine[3] of the Biblical patriarch Abraham. Once Sarah has her child, the narrative is occupied with describing her jealousy against Ishmael, the son of Abrahams other wife, Hagar. Among these traditions we find that Amalekites attacked the Israelites in a pitched battle at Rephidim, which, to judge by the Bible (Ex. Int. The film's portrayal of Reconstruction is one of southern . From 'ab and yada'; father of knowledge (ie Knowing); Abida, a son of Abraham by Keturah -- Abida, Abidah. What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after Sarah's death? In First Chronicles, she is called Abraham's "concubine"[3] (Hebrew: Translit. The Ishmaelites who were settled in the north of the Arabian peninsula, the descendants of Keturah who colonised Midian and the western coast, were also his //sayce/early israel and the surrounding nations/chapter i the israelites.htm, Chapter xxv the life of Jacob and Esau. The story centers on two families, the southern Camerons and the northern Stonemans. Shuach -- a son of Abraham and Keturah. 7743, 7744. /s/shuah.htm - 9k, Genesis 25:1Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah. And his second wife is someone the Torah identifies by name but states nothing further. Order Blacks in the Bible Vol. Although he does not suggest verses 14 as being from a separate source, he sees clearly that they bear no real relationship to verses 56. In a similar way, Keturah provides a matriarchal bridge between the Israelites and several neighboring tribes. The children of Keturah are depicted as waste that issued from Abraham (Sifrei on Deuteronomy 312). Medan. So who was Keturah?
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