Keturah was Abraham's Second Wife

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Hebrew caste reveals that the rulers had two wives. Both were Hebrew women because the Hebrew selected their marriage partners exclusively from among the Hebrew lans (caste endogamy). The ruler's first usually was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife usually was a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The wives maintained separate settlements. The settlements of Sarah and Keturah marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory. Sarah resided in Hebron, at the northern edge of ancient Edom. Keturah, of the royal line of Sheba, resided at Beersheba to the south. Both Hebron and Beersheba were in the territory that the Greeks called Idumea, which is Edom, the land of red people.

This two-wife marriage pattern for high-ranking Hebrew rulers was common. Many Hebrew rulers had two wives. Among them were Lamech the Elder, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Esau the Elder, Amram, Jesse, Elkanah, Ashur, and Joash. 

In 1 Chronicles 4:5, we read that "Ashur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah."

In 1 Chronicles 4:17-18, we read that Mered had two wives, and one was "Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, whom Mered had married."

 
According to Genesis 25:1, Keturah is described as Abraham’s wife. The Hebrew word here is ishshah, which means woman or wife. However, according to I Chronicles 1:32, Keturah was a concubine (piylegesh or piyegesh meaning concubine). I Chronicles reflects a time long after the events described and is not consistent with the overwhelming evidence that Keturah was a wife. The confusion may be due to the Chronicles' post-exilic reading of Genesis 25:6: "To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac..."  It was the custom to send away non-ascendant sons. Abraham, Moses, Jacob and Joseph are among the sent-away sons in the Hebrew Bible.

Abraham married Keturah at a late age. Analysis of the marriage and ascendency pattern of Abraham’s people makes it clear that Keturah was a wife. Typically, the first wife was the bride of the Hebrew ruler's youth and usually his half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. (The sequence may shed light on the relationship of the faithful of the Old Covenant and the faithful of the New Covenant.)

Keturah resided at Beer-Sheba, which took its name from the great patriarch Sheba who controlled the well there. (Beer means well.) Keturah's firstborn son was probably Joktan, who she named after her father. This is an example of the cousin bride's naming prerogative, a distinctive feature of the Hebrew marriage and ascendancy pattern.

It may be that the Joktanite clans of Southern Arabia are among Joktan's descendants.  

Abraham and Keturah were both descendants of Sheba, the great grandson of Ham. They are also descendants of Shem, as the lines of Shem and Ham intermarried. Sheba was a contemporary of Eber, Shem's great grandson. Eber’s son Joktan married a daughter of Sheba. We know this because Joktan’s first-born son was named Sheba, after his cousin bride’s father. This naming prerogative of the cousin bride was already a custom in the time of Lamech (Gen. 4). Lamech’s daughter Naamah married her patrilineal cousin Methuselah and named their firstborn son Lamech after her father.  Lamech the Younger would ascend to the throne of his maternal grandfather.
 
 

Keturah likewise named her first-born son Joktan, after her father. Abraham had two first-born sons by his wives: Isaac and Joktan. He also had firstborn sons by his two concubines Masek and Hagar. By Masek he had Eliezar and by Hagar he had Ishmael. Contrary to common belief, Ishmael was not Abraham's firstborn. Keturah, though Abraham's second wife, would have produced a son before Sarah who was barren and did not bring forth Abraham's proper heir until very late in her life.

Keturah and Sarah were wives whose firstborn sons would rule over different territories. Isaac was Abraham's proper heir who ruled over Abraham's territory after Abraham's death. Abraham's concubines Hagar and Masek were of subordinate status to his wives. This was the case also with Jacob's concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah.


The Pattern of Keturah Parallels the Pattern of Naamah

According to Gen. 10:24-30, Keturah’s father had a brother named Peleg. The text makes much of the implications of Peleg’s name which means “division”, “because it was in his time that the earth was divided” (Gen. 10:25). There are different possible explanations for this division, but the most likely is that expressed in the pattern of genealogical information. The daughter of Sheba who married Joktan and named her firstborn son Sheba is the last bride named of Ham’s line. In this respect she parallels Naamah, the last bride named of Cain’s line.

Keturah’s father was Joktan and her paternal uncle was Peleg, who is said to be the “first” son. This means that Joktan, like Abraham, was not to receive the rights of primogeniture by which he would become chief after his father’s death. So Joktan, Abraham’s firstborn by Ketu-rah, would not be chief after his death. That would fall to Isaac, the son of Sarah. Nevertheless, the Joktanites would become a powerful presence in the Sinai and by their skills and generosity would enable the Israelites to come out of Egypt and survive in the wilderness.

Genesis 10: 26 tells us that Joktan had 13 sons. Almodad appears to be the first-born, as his name is listed first. If Joktan followed the pattern of his fathers, his two wives would have maintained separate households on a north-south axis. This may be the meaning of the sites mentioned in Gen. 10:30: Mesha and Sephar, although “sephar,’ which means “numbering,” might refer to the cosmology of Abraham’s people rather than to a specific location.

Some of the descendants of Joktan and Sheba hold an annual autumn feast at an oasis in the wilderness to celebrate the date harvest. This is the one time of the year that women and men may dance together. The date palm (“tamar”) is a symbol of prosperity and fertility. The ‘Id el-Tamar is a festival when the unmarried check out the pool of available matches. As is the custom from time immemorial, wife selection takes place at a well or an oasis.

The Significance of the Well

Wells and oases are where boy meets girl in the Bible. There are several incidents of wives being found at wells. Abraham’s servant found Rebecca at a well. Moses met Zipporah at a well. The wells were under the control of the local ruler, often Hebrew priests, such as Jethro. Probably Abraham met Keturah at the well of Sheba, one of their common ancestors.

The Hebrew priests among Abraham's people established their shrines near rivers and wells. They needed the water to sustain their flocks, and it was from these flocks and herds that they selected animals to sacrifice. The evidence of the Bible indicates that the rulers among Abraham's Hebrew people married the daughters of Hebrew priests (caste endogamy). Moses married his cousin Zipporah, the daughter of a Hebrew priest named Jethro. He was of the Hebrew clan of Midian. Midian was another son born to Abraham by Keturah. Abraham had nine sons. Here is a list of sons:

Sarah, daughter of Terah (Gen. 20:12)
Yitzak (Issac)

Hagar the Egyptian (Sarah’s handmaid)
Yishmael (Ishmael) was Egyptian, since ethnicity was traced through the mother and Hagar was Egyptian. Tracing ethnicity through the mother rather than the father is still required to establish Jewish identity today. This pattern is recognized in Egypt as well, which is why the Egyptian government has made it illegal for Egyptian men to marry Jewish women.

Ketu-rah, daughter of Joktan (Gen. 25)
Joktan – probably Keturah’s firstborn son
Midian

Yishbak (Name means "sent away")
Zimran
Medan
Shuah

Masek (Keturah’s handmaid, mentioned only in the Septuagint.)
Eliezar 

Related reading: Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Identifying the Status of the Two Wives; The Hebrew were a Caste; Abraham's Sons; Eliezar of Damascus; Abraham's Two Concubines; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Reading the Bible in a Different Way

Abraham's Two Concubines

Alice C. Linsley

God established Abraham as a ruler in ancient Edom (Idumea, "Land of red people"). The northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory were marked by the settlements of his two wives. Sarah dwelt in Hebron and Keturah dwelt in Beersheba to the south. Abraham's wives bore him 7 sons. Daughters were born also, though they are not named in the Bible. Abraham's sons married their half-sisters as well as their patrilineal cousins. Some of their cousin brides were the daughters of Nahor, Abraham's older brother. Nahor was a ruler in Padan-Aram.

Sons were born to Abraham by concubines as well. Ishmael was born of Hagar and, according to the Septuagint, Eliezar of Damascus was born of Mesek. In the New Jerusalem Bible (following the Vulgate) Abraham says to the Lord: "Since you have given me no offspring... a member of my household will be my heir." The Septuagint offers this: "What will you give me, seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus, the son of Mesek, my domestic maidservant." Eliezar as a son of Abraham by a maidservant parallels the story of Hagar. 

Altogether, Abraham had at least 9 sons: Ishmael, Eliezer, Isaac, Joktan, Zimram, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah. There were also daughters though none are named in the Bible. Clearly, God fulfilled His sovereign will concerning Abraham that he should be the "Father of a multitude".

Hagar and Masek are to Abraham's household what the concubines Zilpah and Bilhah are to Jacob's household. They built up the ruling houses of these patriarchs by producing many offspring. If the Hebrew marriage pattern remained consistent, we may reasonably assume that Hagar was the servant of Sarah and Mesek was the servant of Keturah, just as Zilpah was the servant of Leah and Bilhah was the servant of Rachel (Gen. 30). 

That Masek was Keturah's servant is supported by the fact that the name Mesek is still found among the south Arabian Mahra. They dwell in Yemen, Oman and southern Saudi Arabia (see map). This is where we would expect to find the descendants of Abaham by Keturah's servant Masek.

Some Mahra/Masek are semi-nomadic and others are settled in small semi-fortified villages where they farm and raise chickens for eggs and goats for milk. They are known to aggressively defend their territories and water sources and are regarded as belonging to the warrior caste. Their chiefs control the goods and persons who pass through their lands.

The Mahra/Masek are an endogamous tribe, which means that they exclusively marry within their kinship circle. Most men have only one wife, but the chief may have more than one. Children receive inheritances patrilineally, with the first-born son receiving the lion's share.  Young girls are valued for childbearing and for the bonding of families through marriage. In Abraham's time, this was especially true for both wives and concubines.

Related reading: The Marriage and Ascendancy Pattern of Abraham's People; The Hebrew Hierarchy of Sons; Royal Sons and Their Maternal Uncles; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives

Who was Eliezer? Was He from Damascus?

William Dyce's oil painting of Eliezer (1860) 
is on permanent exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

"O Lord God, what can You give me seeing that I shall die accursed, and the steward of my household is Dam-Mesek Eliezer?" Genesis 15:2

The Hebrew is challenging here as there is an attempt at play on the sound ben meshek (son of Masek)... with dam mesek. It appears that Abraham had two concubines, Hagar and Masek. This was not unusual among the Habiru rulers. Consider Jacob's 2 concubines. 

The reference to Masek as a "handmaid" is clearer in the Orthodox Study Bible, based on the Septuagint. Genesis 15:2 reads: "And Abraham said, 'Lord, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus, the son of Masek, my domestic maid servant." The "of Damascus" is probably a mistake, but the Orthodox Study Bible committee decided to leave the place name.
If we include Eliezer as a son (following the Septuagint), Abraham had nine sons by two wives and two concubines. The first of the sons born to Abraham was Joktan (Yaqtan), son of Keturah.

Eliezer was Abraham's son by his concubine Masek (Mesek). He was one of the nine sons named in Scripture who were born to Abraham. However, his relationship to Abraham is only clear in the Septuagint. Bibles based on the Masoretic text do not include this information. The term dam means "blood" or "offspring" of Masek. Some Bibles have that Eliezar is from Damascus or that he is Damascene, but this is not implied in the older Greek version of the Old Testament.

To understand who Eliezar is and his importance, it is necessary to have some understanding of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of Abraham's Horim (called "Horites" in Genesis 36.)

Abraham had two wives, as was the pattern for Horite rulers. His father Terah had two wives. Sarah was Terah's daughter by one wife and Abraham was Terah's son by the other wife. This pattern of two wives meant that there were usually two firstborn sons; one by the half-sister wife and the other by the cousin/niece wife. As with all royal lines, there is problem when the wives are barren. 

In the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern, the firstborn son of the cousin wife ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather, after whom he was titled/named. Lamech the Younger (Gen. 5) ascended to the throne of Lamech the Elder (Gen. 4) Likewise, Esau the Younger ascended to the throne of Esau the Elder (Gen. 36). The first born sons of the cousin wives were not the proper heirs to the thrones of their biological fathers. Joktan, Abraham's first born son, the child of his cousin bride, Keturah, was never considered as Abraham's heir. He belonged to the household of Abraham's father-in-law.

The firstborn of the half-sister wife ascended to the throne of his biological father, so Isaac was Abraham's heir. However, he was not Abraham's firstborn. Neither was Ishmael. Ishmael was conceived late in Abraham's life, after Abraham had married Keturah. Keturah's firstborn son was Joktan (Yaqtan) of the Joktanite Tribes of Arabia. As Keturah was Abraham's cousin wife, Joktan ascended to the throne of his maternal grandfather.  

Sarah was barren. This meant that Abraham was without a proper heir, and growing desperate it appears. This is when he prayed about having an heir and received the promise (Gen. 15:4) that a son would come from his own "loins" (meaning blood descent from him and his half-sister).

Eliezar, as the firstborn of Masek, one of Abraham's concubines, was Abraham's only natural heir. Clearly before Isaac arrived, Eliezar was considered Abraham's rightful heir according to the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern.

The name Eliezar/Eleazar appears twice in the Horite ancestry of Jesus Christ.

Related reading: Why Eliezer Was Abraham's Heir; Abraham's Sons; Abraham's Nephews and Niece; INDEX of Topics at Just Genesis; Sent Away Sons