And she bore him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
After Sarah dies and Isaac marries, Abraham takes another wife, and this verse names six more sons. Two questions follow: how could a man whose body was as good as dead father a second family, and why record these names at all?
One writer reads this second family as a work of resurrection:
So Abraham's marriage to Keturah points to the future blessing of the nations in resurrection power. Abraham's faith had reached to resurrection, to life from the dead. Everything that follows carries the stamp of resurrection, starting with his receiving Isaac back from what was as good as death... The man whose body was dead has many sons.
Readers have long asked how a man that old could father six more sons. One answer is that God did not take back the strength He had given:
Scripture mentions Abraham's marriage to Keturah only after Sarah's death, but it may have taken place long before... Yet the circumstances around Hagar and Ishmael lead us to think otherwise. We lean to the view that Sarah was his only wife while she lived, and that Abraham took Keturah after her death. God renewed Abraham's strength so that His promise could be fulfilled in Isaac's birth, and that strength continued. It was as easy for God to continue it as to give it in the first place.
On Keturah herself, one writer corrects a common assumption:
Whatever tradition may say to the contrary, Keturah was not a slave woman like Hagar. She was not the mother of the promised seed either. She was the mother of six sons born to Abraham, the father of the faithful.
These are not private family details. Midian, the fourth name here, grew into a people Israel met again and again:
Midian was a descendant of Abraham. By birth, then, he was related to Israel, as were many of these peoples. But from an early day they had shown themselves the enemies of God's people. It was they who with the Ishmaelites carried Joseph down into Egypt and sold him into bondage there. Later God freed the nation from that bondage. As Israel drew near their inheritance, it was the Midianites, along with Moab, who first tried to bring God's curse on them through Balaam.
Yet the same family carries a brighter meaning. One writer sees in these sons a picture of the nations in the coming kingdom:
In these children of the second wife we see, in picture, the millennial nations. They are the nations who will fill the earth in the days of the kingdom. They are branches of the great family of God in that day, and children of Abraham. They may lie far off, even at the ends of the earth. Yet they will each have their portion, and will be counted as part of the one extended millennial family... Abraham's children will be all the world over.
The names themselves turn up again in prophecy:
Isaiah 60:6 names Midian, Ephah and Sheba. There the prophet speaks of Gentile nations converted in the coming millennial age.
Why keep these names at all? One writer reads Abraham's three households as a map of God's blessing:
Abraham's three families show the range of God's blessing. Ishmael, the son of the slave woman, stands for the people of God linked with the Jerusalem on earth. Isaac, the son of the free woman, stands for those linked with the Jerusalem above. The sons of Keturah stand for the saved nations of the Gentiles, blessed through the millennial reign of Christ.
Abraham is generous and exclusive at once. He gives gifts to many sons, but everything to one:
Abraham was indifferent to none of them. Neither is the God of Abraham, who will remember them in the coming age of earth's joy and gladness. But Isaac has a place altogether distinctive. To the rest Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, to whom he "gave all that he had."
- Death first. Abraham's body was as good as dead. The six sons of this verse came after that, so his later family bears the stamp of resurrection.
- Strength continued. God did not withdraw the power He gave for Isaac's birth. It was as easy for Him to keep giving it as to give it once.
- Names spread wide. Midian and his brothers became real peoples, kin to Israel by nature yet often its bitter enemies.
- Reach to the ends. Midian, Ephah and Sheba turn up again in prophecy as nations brought into blessing. Abraham's children are all the world over.
- One heir still. Gifts went to many sons. The inheritance went to Isaac alone, and a wider blessing never blurs that line.
And Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan; and the sons of Dedan were the Asshurim, and the Letushim, and the Leummim.
Genesis 25:3 belongs to a short family list that follows Abraham's marriage to Keturah. It names grandsons and great-grandsons who never appear again in Genesis, which raises a fair question: why record them at all?
Sheba and Dedan are not unique names in Scripture. Several different men carry them. One writer counts the men named Sheba and shows which one belongs to this verse:
Sheba needs the greater care because in the inspired history we hear of no less than three heads of tribes who bore the name: the tenth of Joktan's sons now in question, preceded by Sheba the son of Raamah, who descended from Cush (Genesis 10:7), and followed by Jokshan, Abraham's son by Keturah, who fathered another Sheba (Gen. 25:2-3).
Dedan needs the same care. Two different Dedans appear in one chapter of Ezekiel, and the goods they trade tell them apart:
In the same way the men of Dedan in Ezekiel 27:15 appear to be descendants of Cush living on the Persian Gulf, where the island of Dadan preserves the name. Their imports and exports match that. But verse 20 names a different Dedan, who appears to descend from Shem through Keturah.
Abraham did not keep this branch of the family near him. He sent them east, into desert country:
We read that Abraham sent the sons of Keturah and of his concubines "eastward to the east country" (Gen. 25:6). There were also the descendants of Ishmael and those of Esau. Many of these became "princes," and there can be no doubt that their descendants still hold the land.
Sheba, Dedan and Dedan's three sons — Asshurim, Letushim and Leummim — received something from Abraham, but not everything. One writer draws the line sharply, and without coldness:
To none was Abraham indifferent, nor the God of Abraham who will remember them in the coming era of earth's joy and blessedness. But Isaac has a place altogether distinctive. To the rest Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, to whom he "gave all that he had."
Keturah's sons had sons of their own. One writer sees in that growing family the final stage of a lesson Abraham began learning when God promised him Isaac:
Abraham's faith had reached to resurrection — life from the dead. Everything that follows has a resurrection stamp on it, starting with his receiving Isaac back from the image of death. The power of it, the first lesson, was taught when the promise was given that Sarah should have a son... fully learned when he was ready to offer up Isaac, and abundantly proved in his children by Keturah. The man whose body was dead has many sons.
One writer reads this spreading family as a picture of something later:
In these children of the second wife we get, as a picture, the millennial nations. They are the nations that will fill the earth in the days of the kingdom, branches of the great family of God in that day, and children of Abraham. They may lie far off, at the ends of the earth. But they will have their allotments, and be owned as part of the one extended family. "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with His people," will be said to them... Abraham's children will be all the world over.
That reading rests on the prophets. Names from this family list appear again there:
The names Midian, Ephah and Sheba appear in Isaiah 60:6, where the prophet speaks of Gentile nations converted in the coming millennial age.
Commentators differ on how far each prophetic mention traces back to Keturah's line, and how far to the other men named Sheba and Dedan.
- Branch — Jokshan's sons are the second generation from Keturah. Abraham's family widens into tribes, not just one chosen son.
- Distance — Abraham sent this branch "eastward to the east country." One writer notes that their descendants still hold that land.
- Gift — Isaac received all that Abraham had; Sheba, Dedan and the rest received gifts. Neither is nothing, but only one is the inheritance.
- Proof — a man whose body was dead ends up with grandsons. One writer sees resurrection power still at work.
- Reach — Sheba appears again in Isaiah 60:6. Commentators see here a picture of far-off nations counted among Abraham's children.