Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
//After Sarah died, Abraham married again, to a woman named Keturah.
Together, they had several more children. 1 Chronicles 1:32, however,
calls Keturah not a wife but a concubine. So which is it? Wife or
concubine?
Answer:
Maybe both. Keturah was Sarah's maidservant and bore a child to Abraham
years before she became Abraham's wife. How do we know this? Because if
oral tradition is to be trusted, we already know this woman well.
Keturah is another name for Hagar, the woman who bore Ishmael. The woman
whom Sarah demanded be cast out into the desert with her son. Keturah
means "perfumed," and the tradition notes that Hagar was "perfumed with
good deeds."
So
with Hagar out on her own, how did this reconnect with Abraham
transpire? Well, it turns out that Isaac had been living in Beerlahairoi
before he married, which hints that he had been living with Hagar and
Ishmael. See Genesis 16:14, 24:62, 25:11. Evidently, after Sarah died,
the influence of Isaac and Ishmael brought Hagar and Abraham back
together ... one happy family once again. When Abraham died, Isaac and
Ishmael together buried him.
A speculative scenario, but a pleasant one.
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