Genesis 25:1

ABRAHAM’S SONS BY KETURAH, Genesis 25:1-6.

1. Then Rather and, for here is no note of time . When Abraham took Keturah for a wife we have no means of knowing, but it is generally supposed to have been after Sarah’s death . This the order of the narrative would most naturally imply . But such order, and especially the record of genealogies, is no sure index of time, and, for aught that appears, Abraham may have taken Keturah, who is called his concubine in 1 Chronicles 1:32, as he took Hagar, long before Sarah’s death. The historian did not choose to interrupt his narrative by introducing it before, especially as it was of no vital importance in the previous history of Abraham. But, on the other hand, all this may have occurred after Sarah’s death, and even after Isaac’s marriage. In view of the great longevity of Abraham, it is possible that he may have possessed as much vital force at one hundred and forty as ordinarily vigorous men at seventy. The statement, also, that he took Keturah, compared with Genesis 16:3, where it is said “Sarah took Hagar and gave her to her husband,” seems to be against the idea that he took this concubine during Sarah’s lifetime . The six sons mentioned in Genesis 25:2 may all have been born after Isaac’s marriage, and twenty-five years before Abraham’s death .