The Death of Abraham
The Death of Abraham
Image by LUMO Project from Free Bible Images
Keturah
Abraham married again. His wife’s name was Keturah. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Jokshan fathered Sheba and Dedan, and Dedan was the ancestor of the Ashurites, Letushites, and Leummites. The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Enoch, Abida, and Eldah. These were all descendants of Keturah.
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Abraham’s story concludes with a brief record of the end of his life. In his later years, Yahweh “blessed him in every way.”1 These blessings included six more sons by his third wife, Keturah.
Little is known about Keturah. She is called a concubine in verse 6 and in 1 Chronicles 1:32, meaning she didn’t have a dowry and may have been a slave, like Hagar. Her descendants are mentioned several times in Scripture. Most notably, Moses’s wife, Zipporah, was a descendant of Midian.2
Through these six sons and their descendants, God fulfilled his promise to make Abraham “the father of many nations.”3
Gifts
Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. But while he was still alive, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them east, away from his son Isaac.
Though Abraham’s sons through Keturah were a blessing that fulfilled God’s promise, they also posed a serious problem. Like Ishmael, they threatened Isaac’s inheritance.4 Abraham had been forced to expel Ishmael with nothing but a little food and water.5 To avoid a repeat of that debacle, Abraham made sure all of his sons were taken care of before he died.
The gifts Abraham gave to his sons didn’t equal what each would normally have inherited. But he had ample wealth to provide them with gold, silver, and livestock as they started their adult lives. Because they couldn’t inherit any part of Canaan, Abraham sent them east, into the Arabian Peninsula and possibly Mesopotamia.
That “concubines” is plural may indicate that Abraham had other concubines not mentioned in Genesis. More likely, it refers to Keturah and Hagar, meaning Ishmael also received gifts before his father died.
Abraham’s Burial
Abraham lived 175 years. He died at an advanced age, old and content, and was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave in Machpelah, in the field east of Mamre that had belonged to Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite. Abraham bought the field from the Hittites, and he and his wife Sarah were buried there.
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At the age of 175, Abraham died. He had lived in the promised land for a full century and seen God multiply his descendants. His death is not recorded in chronological order, as Jacob and Esau were fifteen when their grandfather died. But at this point, Abraham’s role in the narrative of Genesis has ended, and a new generation takes center stage.
Abraham was buried alongside Sarah in the cave in Machpelah.6 Isaac and Ishmael buried him together. Ishmael’s unexpected reappearance implies that he reconciled with his father, probably after Sarah died. In a beautiful picture of how God restores broken families, Ishmael stood beside the brother who replaced him to honor the father who disinherited him.
Isaac Blessed
After Abraham died, God blessed his son Isaac, who lived at Beer Lahai Roi.
Image by chris manfre from Creation Swap
Abraham’s story ends not with an ending but with a beginning. After he died, God’s blessing passed to Isaac, who inherited not only Abraham’s wealth but also God’s promises. Isaac would have an uncountable number of offspring, and they would one day possess the land of Canaan.7 More importantly, the promised blessing of the nations would come through him.8
Despite Abraham’s vital role, his life was only one chapter in the story of God’s quest to restore his broken family. God’s promises lived on, and the line of the promised offspring of Eve continued.9
The Descendants of Ishmael
These are the descendants of Abraham’s son Ishmael, the son born to Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s servant:
These are the names of Ishmael’s sons, according to the names given to their descendants: Nebaioth (Ishmael’s firstborn), Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names by their settlements and encampments—twelve rulers according to their tribes.
Ishmael lived 137 years. He died and was gathered to his people. His descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, on the border of Egypt heading toward Ashur. He spread out with no regard for his brothers.
After recording Abraham’s death and burial, the narrative moves on to describe what happened to Abraham’s offspring, starting with Ishmael. As elsewhere in Genesis, the line of the eldest son is dealt with first, followed by a more in-depth description of the chosen line of the younger brother.
Ishmael’s twelve sons fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham.10 Each son founded a tribe that was named after him, and each became a tribal chief. In this way, Ishmael parallels Jacob, whose twelve sons also founded the tribes named after them.11
Ishmael and his descendants spread out across a wide area from Mesopotamia to the border of Egypt. But they did not occupy that entire territory. The Ishmaelites were caravan merchants who traveled around selling their wares across the Arabian and Sinai Peninsulas.12 This included Canaan as well as the area to the east, where Abraham had sent his sons through Keturah. In fulfillment of God’s promise to Hagar, Ishmael and his descendants moved about freely, “with no regard for his brothers.”13 In this context, this probably means that they camped wherever they pleased, including in territory claimed by Abraham’s other sons.
- Genesis 24:1
- Exodus 2:16–21.
- Genesis 17:4–6.
- See Isaac’s Inheritance.
- Genesis 21:11–14.
- See Genesis 23:19.
- See The Promise of Offspring; The Promise of Land.
- See Why Israel?
- See The Snake’s Punishment.
- Genesis 17:20.
- Only Joseph did not have a tribe named after him. His descendants belonged to the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, named after Joseph’s two sons.
- Genesis 37:25.
- Genesis 16:11–12; see A Wild Donkey.