Notes 28: Moving on (25:1-18)

SYNOPSIS: A miscellany of facts about Abraham and Ishmael's last days and their wives and offspring. Abraham remarried but left everything to Isaac. He was buried with Sarah in Machpelah by Ishmael and Isaac.

• Text of the passage in Nawat

Speiser (EAS p. 189) says:

...the passage as a whole cannot have been intended as a chronological sequel to [ch. 24]... It is thus evident that the various details of this chapter have been grouped in such a manner as to interfere as little as possible with the progress of the narrative. All of which lends independent support to the assumption that, according to J's timetable, the death of Abraham occurred prior to Rebekkah's arrival.

Speiser and other commentators analyse the chronological information in Genesis to show that something is out of step or out of sequence here; we will take their word for it. We have other worries: there are statements or suggestions here that we might find a little bit jarring. Such as the apparent idea that, after a seemingly aged Abraham sends his servant off on one last mission to find the right wife for Isaac, the old man goes on to remarry and produce a whole slew of further descendants. Besides the biological questions this raises, this comes as a mild affront, in our minds, to Sarah and Isaac, and even Hagar and Ishmael, after all that they (and we) have been through: how could he?? I'm not saying stranger things haven't happened, but this is Abraham! Several thoughts come to mind. This was a period when polygamy was socially "normal" if you could afford it, and it doesn't actually say that he married Keturah after Sarah died, so that might explain the biological issue. Another thought is that we are probably dealing with accounts and traditions about Abraham originating from different sources, which have all been collected here so as not to miss anything, but which we may find make a little more sense if we don't assume that all the things that happen in all those accounts belong to the same narrative timeline: there may have been a tradition about an Abraham who marries Sarah, and another where he marries Keturah, for example. And another way to approach this is to point out that the present bit of genealogy, at least, is accounting allegorically for the existence of various tribes and symbolically depicting the relationships believed to have existed between these. The commentaries agree that, for the most part, the sons and grandsons of Keturah listed are actually Arab tribes. Thus Speiser goes on to say:

The descendants of both Keturah and Ishmael represent sundry elements from the northern peripheries as well as the interior of the Arabian peninsula. Some (Sheba and Dedan) were cited in the Tabe of Nations (10:7); others are listed here for the first time.

In any case, apart from the occasional reappearance of a name or two (Midianite!) in a very different context later on, the events referred to here do not play a part in the subsequent narrative that unfolds, which continues to focus exclusively on the Abraham-Isaac line. What we have here is a footnote to that story, one whose inclusion must clearly have been felt necessary, either to clarify certain points perceived as important, or because the traditions here included were ones that existed and it was not the way of the editors of Genesis to leave out any potentially relevant information.

As a personal reflection, I also wonder whether we might not also wish to consider that, by all accounts, in the ancient world within which this story unfolds, a man's importance and status seems to have been measured by his ability to procreate and even by the number of wives or concubines he recruits into this project. Isaac, the relatively unremarkable middle patriarch, will not be portrayed as engaging in this, but his heir Jacob (alias Israel) certainly will, as are several secondary characters in the story. Perhaps, then, it was felt at one time that, whatever the requirements of the central plot, we couldn't have Abraham only begetting two sons as his stature was clearly greater than this would symbolically imply.

Having disposed of Abraham, another loose end is taken care of next by running through the list of Isaac's half-brother Ishmael's offspring, and his obituary, leaving us free in the following parasha to focus all our attention on Isaac's sons.

25:6 w'livne happilagshim
'The sons of the concubines', but which concubines are those? It is usually assumed that this must refer to Keturah - except that (a) it clearly says in v. 1 Abraham married again, and (b) even if not, Keturah would only be one concubine. Is Hagar to be included here too?

25:8 b'seva Tova
A conventional phrase, 'at a good old age', already found at 15:15. God's promise was fulfilled.


wayye'asef el ‛ammaw
Lit. 'he was gathered unto his people': this is a standard formula providing a solemn expression signifying death, comparable to 'he passed away' in modern English parlance. In the corresponding part of 15:15, the variant found is w'atta tavo el avotékha.

25:9 yitzxaq w'yishma‛el banaw
Coming in such close proximity to the statement above about all Abraham's other sons, the exclusive mention of these two here points to different understandings about Abraham's offspring. Either the list above was never intended as a real account of Abraham's biological children, or else we are again dealing with contrasting sources. It is also hard not to notice the order: although younger, Isaac is listed first.

makhpela
Thus the burial cave in Hebron purchased by Abraham for his wife (ch. 23) eventually became the family tomb.

25:11 b'er laxay ro'i
Which is of course where Rebecca and the servant encountered him in 24:62-65! See also 16:14. 

25:12-16 tol'dot yishma‛el
We already know that Ishmael was the father of twelve tribes, because an angel foretold this to his mother Hagar in ch. 21. Here the twelve are named. The parallel with the future twelve sons/tribes of Israel is obvious.

25:18
A summary is given of the area settled by the tribes which Ishmael is said to have fathered. The geography seems to be wrong: ‛al p'ne mitzráyim boakha asshúra makes little sense!


‛al p'ne khol exaw nafal
What this meant is open to speculation. Lit. 'He fell on the face of all his brothers.' Speiser suggests: 'Each made forages against his various kinsmen.' Cf. 16:12.



END OF SECTION 5

So ends the last section of the Abraham cycle, and hence the cycle itself. We are halfway through the book of Genesis, immersed in the world of the patriarchs, in Canaan. Abraham has passed, and now the heads of the patriarchal household are Isaac and his young wife Rebecca. Their main task in what follows will be to give birth to Israel.