Keturah

KETURAH, Abraham’s second Wife. The Jews say, that Keturah and Hagar, whom Abraham after the Death of Sarah invited again to his House, are the same Person. Others think she was a Canaanite. But we had better own, that we know nothing of the Matter. It is surprizing to some, that Abraham at the Age of an hundred and forty Years should go again and marry a Wife, and perhaps a Canaanite, and that he Aug. l. iii. contra Julian.could have the Children by her, whom we shall name in this Article. Some say, as Saint Austin, that God miraculously preserved his prolifick Virtue to this Age, in Order to his begetting Isaac. Others will have it, that he married Keturah long before Sarah’s Death, 1 Chr. i. 32 and Gen. xxv. 6.and that he kept her in the Quality of a Wife of the second Rank, till after Sarah’s Death; and that then, and not before, he gave her the Rank and Quality of Matron and Wife of the first Order; that at last he had the Children by her who are mentioned in Scripture, a little after the Birth of Isaac, and the Expulsion of Hagar. The Sons who were born of Keturah and Abraham are these, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Abraham gave Presents to all these Children, and sent them to dwell towards the East in Arabia Deserta, being unwilling that they should abide in the Country, which the Lord had promised Isaac.

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