Keturah

Biblical Record

Keturah first appears in Genesis 25:1–6. The King James Version renders the opening verse, "Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah." The New Korean Revised Version calls her a huchŏ (後妻), meaning a wife taken later. Keturah bore six sons to Abraham: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The text also records the names of her grandsons: Jokshan's sons Sheba and Dedan, and Midian's sons Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah.

Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. To the sons of his concubines he gave gifts while he was still living, and he "sent them away from Isaac his son ... eastward, unto the east country" (Genesis 25:5–6). 1 Chronicles 1:32–33 repeats the same list of descendants and introduces Keturah as "Abraham's concubine." Scripture records no words or deeds of Keturah herself.

Significance Within Scripture

The account of Keturah shows that Abraham's descendants spread widely beyond the line of Isaac and became several peoples, while making clear that the covenant inheritance passes to Isaac. Among Keturah's sons, the descendants of Midian reappear several times later in the biblical narrative. Midianites were among the traders who bought Joseph (Genesis 37:28); Moses's father-in-law Jethro and his wife Zipporah were Midianites; and in Judges, Gideon fights against Midian. The New Testament does not mention Keturah directly, and the only wives of Abraham who appear in the allegory of Galatians 4 are Sarah and Hagar.

Interpretation and Debated Points

• Timing of the marriage: Because the account follows Sarah's death (Genesis 23) in the narrative order, it is generally read as describing a marriage that took place after Sarah died. Some interpreters, however, take the Hebrew verb as a pluperfect and hold that Keturah was a concubine Abraham had already taken during Sarah's lifetime. This view is discussed in connection with Romans 4:19, which describes Abraham's body as "now dead, when he was about an hundred years old."
• Tradition identifying her with Hagar: Rabbinic literature and the medieval commentator Rashi identified Keturah with Hagar. The biblical text itself makes no such statement, and Protestant commentators generally regard the two as different women.
• Meaning of the name: The name Keturah is sometimes interpreted as related to a Hebrew word for "incense." This interpretation is occasionally linked to the fact that Sheba, Dedan, and Midian, all among her descendants, are associated with regions along the Arabian incense trade routes. The etymology, however, is not settled.

In the Korean Church

Sermons or hymns devoted specifically to Keturah are uncommon. She is mentioned chiefly as part of Abraham's genealogy—when Genesis is read during reading through the Bible, in sermons on the life of Abraham, or when explaining the background of Jethro and the Midianites.