Abraham and his descendants
1 Abraham married another wife named Keturah.
2 She bore him Zim ram, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.
3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the sons of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushites, and the Leum mites.
4 The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were descendants of Keturah.
5 Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.
6 To the sons of his concubines Abra ham gave presents, and as long as he lived he sent them away from his son Isaac, to the land of the east.
7 Abraham had lived a hundred and seventy-five years.
8 Then at a good old age Abraham breathed his last, an old man, after a full span of years, and was gathered to his an cestors.
9 His sons, Isaac and Ishmael, buried him in the cave at Machpelah,
10 in the field of Ephron the Hittite, son of Zohar. This was the field near Mamre that Abraham bought from the Hittites. Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were buried there.
11 After Abra ham’s death God blessed his son Isaac who lived near the well of Lahai-roi.
12 These are the descendants of Ish mael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, the Egyptian.
13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael in order of their birth. Ishmael’s firstborn was Nebaioth, and after him Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
14 Mish ma, Dumah, Massa,
15 Ha dad, Tema, Je tur, Naphish and Kedemah.
16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, according to their settlements and camps, twelve tribal princes.
17 Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people.
18 His descendants lived in the territory stretching from Havilah to Shur, near the border of Egypt in the direction of Assyria. They have been fighting continually among themselves.
19 This is the story of Isaac, son of Abra ham.
20 Isaac was forty when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean from Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean.
The birth of Esau and Jacob
21 Isaac prayed to Yahweh for his wife, because she could not have children. Yahweh heard Isa ac’s prayer and Rebekah, his wife, conceived.
22 As the children strug gled together within her, she said, “If it is like this, why do I continue to live?” She went to consult Yahweh,
23 and Yahweh said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be born of you; one nation will be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.”
24 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
25 The first to be born was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they called him Esau.
26 Then his brother was born and his hand had gripped Esau’s heel so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty at the time of their birth.
27 When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country; Jacob was a quiet man living in tents.
28 Isaac who had a liking for game loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 Once when Jacob was making a stew, Esau came back from the country and he was famished;
30 and he said to Jacob, “Let me have some of that red stew, for I am famished.” That is why he was also called Edom.
31 Jacob said, “First sell me your right as the first born.”
32 Esau said, “Since I am to die soon, what good is my right as the firstborn to me?”
33 Then Jacob said, “Give me your oath first.” So he swore to him and sold his firstborn right to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave him bread and the lentil stew. Esau ate and drank and then got up and went his way. So it was that Esau thought nothing of his right as the firstborn.
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Comments Genesis, Chapter 25
• 25.1 Medan, Midian, Sheba, Dedan: these are names of tribes and peoples of Ara bia. Since the Israelites considered them their relatives by race and language, they wanted them to also be Abraham’s descendants.
• 21. We may be astonished that the Israe lites called themselves the sons of Israel (or sons of Jacob) rather than the sons of Abra ham.
Let us remember first what has been said in the Introduction: the sequence Abraham, father of Isaac, father of Jacob is only a construction of the history of these first fathers of the people of God. These three names were kept in the early traditions of different regions, and the corresponding persons had not lived at the same time. Abraham would have lived in the 18th century before Jesus, Isaac doubtless a little later, but in another corner of Southern Palestine, at Gerar, and Jacob in the 16th or 15th century. If the name of Abraham has been eclipsed by that of Jacob the reason is without a doubt the following.
Abraham was in fact the great patriarch of the south of Palestine, he had settled in Mam re, near Hebron; he was taken to be the ancestor of David. Did David not reign in Hebron? Popular traditions recounted in the Bible come from the tribes established in central Palestine, where the powerful kingdom of Israel would be established after the schism. Then it seems that in this northern kingdom the figure of Abraham was “demoted” with the first place given to Israel–Jacob; then they had the twelve tribes descending from the “twelve sons” of Jacob.
Two nations are in your womb (v. 23). We must not forget that, in this story, each character represents a group of people bearing the same name. Just as Jacob–Israel was considered the an cestor of the Israelites, so Esau or Edom (25:31) was considered the ancestor of the Edomites, neighbors and rivals of the Israelites.
These chapters show the freedom of God who chooses the Israelites rather than the Edomites to be the instrument of his salvation; even among the Israelites God chooses whom he wants to be put in charge of a more or less transcendent mission.
In this chapter we are given three reasons for the rejection of Esau:
– A passage in chapter 25 shows Esau to be guilty: he himself scorned his sacred rights as eldest son.
– Another passage, 26:34, mentions his marriage to foreign women.
– A third passage (in chapter 27) shows how God takes advantage of one of Jacob’s tricks to achieve his goals. The Israelites were not very scrupulous about lying. For them Jacob’s trick only showed that he was determined to get God’s promises by any means, and in so doing, he becomes deserving of these promises.
In Hebrews 12:16 Esau will be mentioned as an example of a godless person, one who sells God’s blessing for a meal. How many lost opportunities in our own life: stupid things in life have bewitched us and caused us to miss what alone is worth keeping!