Chapter 25
This starts the chapter:
1 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah. [Gen 25:1 ESV]
He was 100 years old when Isaac was born. Sarah had died. Abraham was alone. Isaac was a teenager when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice him. And now, at this age, Abraham takes a wife. He fathers 6 sons with this wife! He is around 115 at this time.
But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.
Genesis 25:6 ESV
Does not seem ok by today's standards. Have to remember also that Abraham was over 100 when these children were born. These are not the children of Keturah I don't think. Besides Keturah and Sarah, he had concubines, and he fathered children by them also. Are they all blessed as Isaac was? Do each of them also have children as numerous as the sands of the sea? That's what Ishmael received. (I Chron 1:32 says Keturah was a concubine. Only Hagar was a wife, as Sarah...and at this point I'm not even positive about that. MSB notes on Chapter 16 say that according to the custom of the time, Ishmael was considered Sarah's son, and therefore heir to Abraham. So this might be the difference between Ishmael and all the children of the concubines.
2022 - This time through, I note that it doesn't say Abraham sent Keturah away. Abraham lived to see his sons with Keturah grow into men, ready to take on their own responsibilities. He gave them freedom, in at least some sense, to leave him and go where ever they wished. He gave them gifts - items of significant value - that might help them buy some land, establish a place for themselves, and marry in the land they chose. Read this way, this is not a "bad" thing Abraham did, that we must understand as the cultural norm of the time. He set them up to succeed, and he sent them out on their own, ceremonially, likely with a departure celebration and fanfare, to begin their own lives.
2026 - There were a lot of sons and grandsons with Keturah. Sure looks like they received the "sands of the sea" promises.
Abraham dies at 175, full of years.
11 After the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son. And Isaac settled at Beer-lahai-roi. [Gen 25:11 ESV]
We have seen Beer-lahai-roi before. This is where God spoke to Hagar and told her he would prosper her son Ishmael. An odd place for Isaac to settle. Remember it means "Well of the Living One seeing me".
Ishmael has 12 sons. They settle east of Egypt toward Assyria, from Havilah to Shur. The map below from brotherpete.com is one interpretation of where these places are. There are other maps, all a bit different, some including the entirety of Saudi Arabia as Havilah, others more like this. Shur is the desert along the Mediterranean, they all seem to agree on that. Shur was also a city on the eastern side of that desert. They crowd right up to the southern and southeastern borders of Canaan. Ishmael dies at 137. We are not told anything else about his life and times, at least at this point. Islam makes much of Ishmael as they are descended from him and his sons. Yet the Bible says almost nothing of him.
2021 - It is interesting that they would camp all along the northern edge of Saudi Arabia. These are the Arabs. They are right up against their brethren in Israel, but they stretch out much further to the east also. Remember that Abraham also sent the sons of his concubines to the east. So many descendants of Abraham are in this whole area.
There is quite a bit of genealogy in this chapter of Genesis.
23 And the LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger." [Gen 25:23 ESV]
So we have Ishmael splitting off from the line that leads to Israel, and settling south (and east) of Canaan - right up against it. Lot's sons by his daughters settle on the east side of Canaan - Moab and Ammon. And now here is Esau, who will become Edom, and be on the south side of Canaan. All of Israel's enemies were split off from the direct line from Abraham to Israel. They all settle in this area. Need to keep this in mind when reading the prophecies of these places in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and later prophets. That would be such an interesting study!
2021 - Ishmael and his sons are the Arabs, wild like donkeys I believe the phrase was, though it may only have applied to Ishmael. His sons would be 3/4's Egyptian, also. Who do the sons of Esau become? Just the Edomites? A place and not a people?
Rebekah has twins. Esau red and covered with hair. Jacob, who dwells in tents. Jacob means "he who takes by the heel", or "he who cheats", because he was holding onto Esau's heel as he was born. Jacob was not a manly man like Esau. Isaac loves Esau for the game he brings, but Rebekah loves Jacob.
2021 - I always thought Esau meant red, but it does not. The word for red is "admoni", which means just red, or red-haired. But the verse says this:
25 The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. [Gen 25:25 ESV]. By this wording, it would seem that the abundance of hair, and not the color, were the basis of his name. Esau means "hairy".
2025 - Just to be clear, Esau was "red" or "ruddy", either his hair or his complexion or both, when he was born. But his name does not mean red. His name means hairy. Edom is the word that is sort of "bent" to mean red.
28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. [Gen 25:28 ESV] Here might be a good place to remember how "easily" Rebekah's kin consented to her moving far away. Perhaps they recognized a problem in her even then. This choosing of sides is a problem on both sides.
Esau really wants some of Jacob's red stew. So Esau is called Edom, because Edom sounds like the Hebrew word for red. In the usage in vs 30, the word for red is transliterated "adom". Apparently red stew uses a different form of the word than when it means "red-haired". But "adom" obvious sounds a like "edom". Further, in the interlinear, the word "adom" is used twice of the stew. The word for word translation makes it "that same red". So the stew was red red?
Esau sells his birthright for stew. He did not value his birthright. He was a grown man at the time. He knew what the birthright was worth, but it meant nothing to him. He disdained it. He is disrespected by God for what he did. Very short sighted. In the book of Hebrews, he is called profane.
Hebrews 12:16 KJV — Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.