1Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
25:1-41Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
Abraham takes another wife, whose name was Keturah. [1]
She bore him six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. (And no daughters?) [2]
3 And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
4 And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. [3]
25:5-115 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
Abraham gave everything he had to Isaac. [4]
6But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.
Abraham gave gifts to his sons who were born to his concubines [5], and then sent them away from Isaac.
7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen 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.
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 of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham 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 by the well Lahairoi.
Abraham lived 175 years. [6]
25:12-1812Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's handmaid, bare unto 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, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
14 And Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
15 Hadar, and 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.
Now these are the generations of Ishmael....
17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, an hundred and thirty and seven years: and he gave up the ghost and died; and was gathered unto his people.
18 And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.
Ishmael lived 137 years. [7]
25:19-2819 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 wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Rebekah was barren [8], so Isaac asked God for help to get her pregnant.
And Presto! Rebekah conceived twins.
22And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
The twins struggled in Rebekah's womb. So she asked God about it.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
God said to her,
Two nations are in your womb, and two different kinds of people will come out of it.
One kind will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
Esau was the first to come out. He was red and hairy all over.
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.
When his brother came out he grabbed on to Esau's heel. He was named Jacob.
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.
Esau grew to be a cunning hunter, while Jacob was a plain man who lived in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Isaac loved Esau because Esau was a hunter and Isaac loved venison.
Rebekah loved Jacob. [9]
25:29-3429 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom.
One day when Jacob was making pottage, Esau came in from the field.
Esau was tired and hungry, so he said to Jacob,
Please feed me some of that red pottage, because I am tired and hungry.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
Jacob said,
Okay, if you'll sell me your birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
Esau said,
Well, since I'm about to die, what good will my birthright do me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.
Jacob said,
Swear to me.
And Esau sold his birthright to Jacob.
34Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and a lentil pottage.
Esau ate what Jacob gave him. "Thus Esau despised his birthright."
Abraham needed God's help to father Isaac when he was 100 years old (Gen 21:1-2, Rom 4:19, Heb 11:12).
But here, when he is even older, he manages to have six more children without any help from God.
Since Abraham had so many sons, why does the bible say that he had only one?
Abraham gave everything he owned to Isaac -- ignoring his other sons (Ishmael, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah), as well as all of his nameless and unmentioned daughters, along with God knows how many other children he had with his other concubines, and the wives and concubines themselves.
How many concubines did Abraham have? The Bible mentions Hagar and Keturah, but were there others?
In the Bible it's always the women that are "barren", never the men. And when God "opens their womb," the resulting babies are always little boys.
God, like Rebekah, loved Jacob more than Esau. In fact, according to Romans 9:13, he hated Esau.
No reason is given for why one son is loved while the other is hated. But since God chose to act this way, it must have been as an example for parents to follow.
Have you decided which of your children to hate?
I wonder if God's reaction to Rebekah's infertility was a grand compensation for screwing up Sarah's situation. Yeah, she eventually was blessed with a child, but only after she first pimped Abraham out to her handmaid for a surrogate child. Here, Isaac merely asks God for assistance and all of a sudden, twins! Maybe our perfect, omniscient god is capable of learning from his dumb mistakes. (There's still a lot of Genesis to go, so...)