Genealogy of Abraham's 2nd Wife, Keturah and Ishmael's Family of 12 Tribes...the Arabs

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               

                                           Abraham and wife and niece, Sarah in their tent

We rarely hear about the rest of Abraham's life after his wife, Sarah, passed away and was buried.  It is recorded in the Torah, however.  The way the Torah reveals our history, when a person's role in the development of the narrative is completed, his life is summed up, even though he may have lived for many more years.  Sarah had Abraham take her handmaid, Hagar, who she hoped would produce a son for Abraham as she had not and was  old, and Hagar did, bearing Ishmael. 

                                                

                      The older Ishmael and young Isaac had different interests as well as different mothers, Hagar and Sarah. Hagar was Egyptian and Sarah was the niece of Abraham, both coming from Ur of the Chaldees.   

                                         

Arabs in the Negev Desert today

Ishmael lived in Paran, the desert or "wilderness" in the Negev,   but joined Isaac in burying Abraham, their father. 

                                                 

                   A Bedouin Arab marriage- men do the dancing

 

His daughter married Esau, the older twin of Jacob.  He is traditionally the ancestor of the Arab peoples to whom the name, Ishmael, was applied in the Middle Ages, when Arabs were called the Ishmaelites. Ishmaelites lived in Northern Arabia between Egypt and the Assyrian border.  They traded with Egypt.  Modern Arabs still claim this descent from Ishmael, son of Abraham.  

 Esau, Ishmael's son-in-law, is identified with Edom (Idumea)aka Mt. Seir. (Gen 36:I) Edom lay south of the Dead Sea and bordered on the Red Sea at Elath and Ezion Geber.  The Edomites were of Semitic origin, traditionally descendants of Esau, and lived by hunting. "While Jacob was an ardent student, Esau was more inclined to spend his days in the fields, hunting animals and birds. It is told that Nimrod, a master hunter himself, was in possession of a cloak that had been passed down from Adam, which attracted wildlife when worn, facilitating his hunting abilities. Esau strongly desired this cloak, to the extent that he plotted against Nimrod, murdering him and securing the cloak for his personal use."

They dispossessed the Horite people of Seir and organized themselves along tribal lines headed by a chieftain, later consolidating into a monarchy.  The Edomites were traditional enemies of the Israelites.  They fought Saul and were defeated by David who partly annexed their land.  The Edomites regained their independence during the reign of Jehoram, but wars between the 2 states were frequent.  In the 8th century BCE, the Edomites became vassals of Assyria.  

Sarah and Isaac on the left watching Ishmael leave with his mother, Hagar.  

They were sent away after having a row with Sarah when she had finally become a mother herself and had produced Isaac.  

Once Abraham, at the age of 140, had arranged for the marriage of his son,  Isaac to Rebekah, the destiny of the Jewish people moved on in the Torah to the next generation, even though Abraham lived to the age of 175.  The Torah then summarized the rest of his life.  

                                                                       

(Genesis 25:1) Abraham remarried Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian handmaid, now referred to as Keturah, who was given this name because her deeds were as beautiful as incense.  These deeds must have developed after giving Sarah such a bad time after giving birth quickly to Ishmael  before Sarah had given birth to Isaac and held this over Sarah's head, bothering her enough to tell Abraham that Hagar and Ishmael had to leave their compound.  I have a feeling that Hagar stopped being the beloved  handmaid of Sarah after becoming a mother.  She would have been busy with Ishmael.  Also, the prevailing opinion of that day was that Keturah must be Hagar because Hagar had remained chaste from the time she was separated from Abraham.  The name, Keturah, in Aramaic, means RESTRAINED.  

This  conclusion about his 2nd wife was written about in the Midrash, which was a new way of looking at facts, finding hidden and new meanings,  and by RASHI (1040-1105) , the biblical commentator that is one of my ancestors.  Possibly the earth wasn't populated to the extent that there were many other women available for Abraham to marry, or that he had not forgotten Hagar and sought her out again.  

Abraham and Hagar 's child was Ishmael.  Abraham and Sarah's child was Isaac.  The children that Abraham had late in life with Keturah  were Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah, 6 children.  It's possible that a woman can have a child every year, but usually has one every 2 years, nursing in between the times, and this can keep her from becoming pregnant.  Being Hagar and Keturah were the same person, Ishmael received 6 siblings when an adult.  

Jokshan begot Sheba and Dedan.  Dedan begot Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.  

Midian begot Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldah, 5 children. 

                                               

Midian was a Beduin tribe related to Abraham (Gen. 25:2).                                                   

Its members traveled with caravans of incense from Gilead to Egypt and later to other countries.  They were closely connected with the Israelites.  Moses fled from the Pharaoh to Midian and married there the daughter of JETHRO.  At the end of the desert period, the princes of Midian cooperated with Moab against Israel (Num.21:29) and at a later period conducted a plundering expedition against the Valley of Jezreel.  This was repulsed by Gideon (Judg 6).  They lived near the Moabites and Edomites.  From 2nd Temple times (538 BCE) , the Land of Midian was thought to be located in NW Arabia.                                                

Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but to the concubine-children who were Abraham's, Abraham gave gifts.  Then he sent them away from Isaac, his son while he was still alive, eastward to the land of the east. Isaac had married Rebekah who had their son, Jacob.  Jacob's name was later changed to ISRAEL.  

 Earlier it was said that Abraham remarried Hagar-Keturah and now she is referred to as concubine. The outcome of inheritance shows that Ketura's sons were not on an even plane with Isaac.  They would be considered coming from the same origins as Ishmael, though.  Abraham lived his life fully, not one day was wasted.  He died in the year 2123 from Creation.  In giving his life span, the Torah follows the pattern it used in giving Sarah's years to indicate that at a 100 he was like 70, and at 70 like 5-without sin.  

Ishmael had sons;  Nebaioth, Kedar, Adbeel and Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, and Massa, Hadad and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedem.  These are their names by their open cities and by their strongholds, 12 chieftains for their nations.   It's interesting to note that Jacob, Isaac's son, had 12 sons who were also chiefs or ancestors  of the 12 tribes of Jacob, whose name was later changed to ISRAEL.  

Kedar was an Arab tribe (Is.21-16) related to the Ishmaelites (Gen.25:13).  They lived in the Arabian desert, and their distinctive black tents (songs of Songs 1:5) were familiar to the Israelites.  They were noted for their large flocks and were skilled archers s(Is. 21:17).  during the Babylonian exile,(597-538 BCE,  the tribe apparently occupied areas in Southern Judah.  

Hadad is the name of the chief god of the ancient Semitic pantheon.  It is often regarded as the god of justice and augury.  He was especially the patron of rain and thunder.  He is sometimes identified with Baal, but it is thought that Hadad was his main name and Baal a title denoting lordship of the world.  Several kings of Edom had taken this name.  It's still in use today.  Major Hadad  in the 1980s was the Lebanese man who helped Israel by guarding the boarder.  He would come to Israel's hospital for R&R.  Israel promised to care for his children if the major was killed.  

 Jeturites were Itureans.  Iturea was an ancient Syrian state. The Bible refers to the sons of Jetur who fought those Israel tribes settled in Transjordan (I chron. 5:19).  The Itureans became independent in the following century, their territory including part of Galilee and the towns of Chalcis (the  capital) and Heliopolis.  Pompey and Mark Antony, however, reduced its extent, the beneficiaries being King Herod and his descendants.  The country was later absorbed into Syria.  

             

 Kedem winery of kosher wine in New York took on this ancient name.

It's interesting also that Ishmael, son of Abraham, was the father of 12 tribes.  Ishmael and Isaac were the sons of Abraham in that order. These 12 tribes were the grandsons of Abraham.

 Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, was the father 12 the 12 tribes of Jacob-Israel.  These 12 tribes were the great grandsons of Abraham. 

Jacob's 12 tribes  lived in areas that Joshua drew lots for to determine where they would live.  They got to the point of wanting a king like other nations around them had, so that's when Saul was appointed king. 

                                    

Saul in the 11th century BCE, was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.  The people were in the middle of a military threat from the Philistines and Ammonites and knew they needed a leader.  It was Samuel, the prophet, that selected Saul who at once organized a trained army and inflicted defeats on the enemy.  

  In studying sociology, one finds that tribes can grow to become clans and clans can grow to become cities.  Tribes stem from a common person making it a genealogical family group.  Tribes are almost the same as a band. Tribes generally have more permanent settlements than bands.  A tribe, though classically based at least fictively based on a remote common ancestor and thus shared kinship, is typically a political or ethnic unit that shares a common culture, language, and religion. On the “big” end of the scale, it can refer to a whole nation, and on the “small” end of the scale, to any cohesive group of people who feel an affinity for one another, forming an “insider” group with everyone else being “outsiders.” Even a high-school cafeteria-table “clique” is, in that sense, a “tribe.”

A clan is much more specific. Many “tribes,” of the national or ethnic group variety, are specifically divided into multiple clans, each identified with a different specific common ancestor. Their sense of shared kinship with each other within the clan is far stronger than the sense of shared kinship within the tribe as a whole. Some, “endogamous,” societies, prefer that marriages take place between members of the same clan, often as closely related as first cousins; other, “exogamous,” societies, require that any marriage partner be found in a different clan, though, typically, within the same tribe.

Clans can, also, form the basis for political or economic social organization as well as kinship and marriage, but usually just at a local level, or in the form of nepotism practiced by a national or regional leader choosing associates from among his own clan. Clans rarely function as self-contained economic and political units, the way a tribal group can, especially if it is isolated from other tribal groups (as are many small indigenous tribes in underdeveloped parts of the world).

 While still relatively egalitarian, political leaders have more power than the leaders of bands. However, leaders who try to exercise too much power can be deposed through socially structured methods. This helps to prevent over-centralization of power and wealth.   A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning that their members can marry one another.                                             

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Tanakh, the Stone Edition

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/tribes/