Genesis 25

The Death of Abraham

1 Now Abraham married again. *Keturah was his new wife,

*Keturah – She’s called a concubine in 1 Chronicles 1:32. Means: “incense”.

2 and she bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

3 Jokshan's two sons were Sheba and Dedan. Dedan's descendants were the Asshurites, Letushites, and Leummites.

4 *Midian's sons were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. These were all descendants of Abraham through Keturah.

*Midian – Midian’s descendants are mentioned frequently in the Old Testament. The Midianites were often allied with the Ishmaelites (Genesis 37:25, 27, 28, 36), the Moabites (Numbers 25:1, 6-15) and the Amalekites (Judges 6:3). Midianites took Joseph to Egypt (Genesis 37:28, 36).They lived along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aqabah.

5 Abraham left everything he owned to his son Isaac.

6 But before he died, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them off to the *east, away from Isaac.

*east – i.e., to Arabia.

7 Abraham lived for 175 years,

8 and he died at a ripe old age, joining his ancestors in death.

9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

10 This was the field Abraham had purchased from the Hittites, where he had buried his wife Sarah.

11 After Abraham's death, God poured out rich blessings on Isaac, who settled near *Beer-lahairoi in the Negev.

*Beer-lahairoi in the Negev – the well named by Hagar (Genesis 16:14).

12 This is the *history of the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham through Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian servant.

*history of the descendants of Ishmael – Isaac may have obtained this list from Ishmael when they met for Abraham’s burial.

13 Here is a list, by their names and clans, of Ishmael's descendants: The oldest was Nebaioth, followed by Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,

14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,

15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.

16 These twelve sons of Ishmael became the founders of twelve tribes that bore their names, listed according to the places they settled and camped.

17 Ishmael finally died at the age of 137 and joined his ancestors in death.

18 Ishmael's descendants were scattered across the country from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt in the direction of Asshur. The clans descended from Ishmael camped close to one another.

This would have been in northern Arabia, along the main caravan route between Egypt and Assyria. Shur is the wilderness just east of the border of Egypt and Havilah (meaning “sandy”) probably refers to all the sandy desert area of northern Arabia.

19 This is the history of the family of Isaac, the son of Abraham.

20 When Isaac was forty years old, he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban.

Isaac was the only monogamous patriarch.

21 Isaac pleaded with the LORD to give Rebekah a child because she was childless. So the LORD answered Isaac's prayer, and his wife became pregnant with twins.

The Jews have a tradition that Isaac took his wife with him to Mount Moriah, where God had promised that he would multiply Abraham's seed (Genesis22:17), and there, in his prayer with her and for her, pleaded the promise made in that very place.

22 But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. "Why is this happening to me?" she asked.

23 And the LORD told her, "The sons in your womb will become two rival nations. One nation will be stronger than the other; the *descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son."

*the descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son – In other words, the Messianic line would come through the younger and must inherit the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Therefore, the younger (Jacob) must receive the father’s inheritance and blessing, as Isaac had from Abraham). Seth, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and David were all not first-born sons.

Surely, Rebekah told Isaac, Jacob and Esau about this.

Romans 9:10-13: This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he grew up, he married Rebekah, who gave birth to twins. But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message proves that God chooses according to his own plan, not according to our good or bad works.) She was told, "The descendants of your older son will serve the descendants of your younger son." In the words of the Scriptures, "I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau."

Malachi 1:2-3: "I have loved you deeply," says the LORD. But you retort, "Really? How have you loved us?" And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your ancestor Jacob. Yet Esau was Jacob's brother, and I rejected Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals."


24 And when the time came, the twins were born.

25 The first was very red at birth. He was covered with so much hair that one would think he was wearing a piece of clothing. So they called him *Esau.

*Esau sounds like a Hebrew term that means "hair." ”. Also called “Edom”, which means “red” or “ruddy”. Esau settled on Mt. Seir (Deuteronomy 2:4-5), which became the home of his descendants, the Edomites, a tribe consistently hostile to the Jews (Herod was an Edomite). Hebrews 12:16 calls Esau “immoral and godless.”

26 Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau's heel. So they called him *Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born.

*Jacob means "he grasps the heel"; this can also figuratively mean "he deceives."

Hosea 12:3-6 Before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him-- the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name!

27 As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open fields, while Jacob was the *kind of person who liked to stay at home.

*kind of person who liked to stay at home – actually, the Hebrew word is tam, which means “perfect” or “complete” – the same word God used to describe Job. Jacob was a shepherd and, therefore, remained close to home in contrast to his roving brother. Jacob went into the family business, so to speak. His aptitude can be seen later when he quickly fetched two kids from his flock for his mother and subsequently when he successfully went to work shepherding Laban's livestock.

28 Isaac loved Esau in particular because of the wild game he brought home, but Rebekah favored Jacob.

29 One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home exhausted and hungry from a hunt.

30 Esau said to Jacob, "I'm starved! Give me some of that red stew you've made." (This was how Esau got his other name, Edom--"Red.")

31 Jacob replied, "All right, but trade me your birthright for it."

All of the children shared the inheritance, but the firstborn received a portion twice as big as the others. An example: If there were five children, the inheritance was divided into six parts whereof the firstborn received two and the others one each.

32 "Look, I'm dying of starvation!" said Esau. "What good is my birthright to me now?"

If Esau was about to die, wouldn't the birthright have gone to Jacob anyway?

33 So Jacob insisted, "Well then, swear to me right now that it is mine." So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his younger brother.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the fact that he had given up his birthright.


Hebrews 12:16-17 Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau. He traded his birthright as the oldest son for a single meal. And afterward, when he wanted his father's blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he wept bitter tears.