Descendants of Abraham Part V: Sons of Keturah
Perhaps the most enigmatic of all the descendants of Abraham are the Sons of Keturah. Their names are recorded in Genesis 25:2-4 and 1Chronicles 1:32-33.
Genesis 25:1-4 Abraham took another wife, whose name was Ketu'rah. 2 She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid'ian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshu'rim, Letu'shim, and Le-um'mim. 4 The sons of Mid'ian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abi'da, and Elda'ah. All these were the children of Ketu'rah. (RSV)
The six sons were probably born in the first half of the 1800s BCE. The identities of their descendants down to the present day have largely remained a mystery, however, there are some clues in the historical records. Surah 11:95 in the Qur’an says that one of the sons, Midian, was “removed from sight” – perhaps until these Last Days. Midian was the most notable son, in that his descendants are mentioned more often in the Bible, the Qur’an and in secular records than any of his brothers’ descendants. Hence, more will be written about Midian and the tribes descended from him. The basis is that Midian was the tribe of the father-in-law of Moses and thus closest to Israel in importance and location.
The Surahs of the Qur’an, written about four years before the Hijrah, deal with the concept of the revelation of God through the prophets.
Surah 10 titled “Jonah” draws its name from the reference to the people that Jonah witnessed to and who believed (S. 10:99). The next Surah deals with the transmission of prophecy through the Arab prophets and also through the sons of Keturah in Midian. The Surah 11, “Hud”, refers to the Arabian prophet Hud not mentioned in the Bible. He was of the tribe of A’ad. The Surah also mentions two other prophets, Salih of the tribe of Thamud, and Shu’eyb of Midian, who Pickthall says is identified with Jethro. Both Surahs then devolve authority on Moses and Aaron.
If Shu’eyb is indeed Jethro, the Qur’an is explaining further the transfer of the transfer of
authority of the Scriptures to Israel through Moses and Aaron. The Tribe of Midian was used to effect that process through Moses’ sojourn in Midian and the preparation for the Exodus. Midian is then shown as being removed after a catastrophe that befell the unjust, saving only Shu’eyb and those who followed him. In other words, only the faithful were saved at that time. The Arabs, however, were continually paganised for millennia.
We will deal more with Jethro below.
Keturah
Keturah is one of the most evocative names in the Bible. It means perfumed or incense (SHD 6989), and brings to mind the burning aroma of the sacrifices and the incense smoke that ascended as a sweet offering to the Lord. The word qetorah (SHD 6988, from 6989), found only in Deuteronomy 33:10, also means smoke of sacrifice or incense. The Arabic name for Keturah is Saffurah, who was described as a Kushiyat (i.e. a Cushite, as with Moses’ wife in Num. 12:1, RSV).
Some commentaries, including rabbinic literature, claim that Keturah is simply another name for Hagar, the concubine/wife of Abraham and mother of Ishmael.
However, the two women and their various offspring are mentioned quite separately on several occasions – in Genesis 25:6, for example. Here Hagar and Keturah are each referred to as concubine, namely piylegesh (SHD 6370). Messrs E. Hirsch and M. Seligsohn, in their article on Keturah in the Jewish Encyclopedia, dismiss the idea of her being synonymous with Hagar.
Still it seems that such was not the opinion of the Talmudic doctors; for the children of Ishmael and the children of Keturah are kept distinct in the story of their complaints against the Jews before Alexander the Macedonian (Sanh. 91a).E. G. H. M. Sel.
It appears also that Abraham married Keturah about 65 years after taking Hagar as concubine. Traditionally the Temple records also claim that Keturah was descended from Japheth. Thus the reference to Kushite must refer to the robber tribes that inhabited the area of Babylonia, some of whom were Medes and sons of Japheth rather than the sons of Cush (see below).
The Yakult Midrash makes a not unreasonable assertion concerning all three wives of Abraham.
Abraham married three wives – Sarah, a daughter of Shem; Keturah, a daughter of Japheth; and Hagar, a daughter of Ham. (ibid., chpt. 8)
J.A. Selbie in A Dictionary of the Bible (James Hastings, publ. by T & T Clark, Edin., 1899) adds this comment on the sons of Keturah:
From the meaning of the name Keturah, ‘frankincense’, Sprenger [in Geog. Arab. 295] suggests that the ‘sons of Keturah’ were so named because the author of Gn. 25 1ff. knew them as traders in that commodity.
According to Selbie, Arab genealogists maintain there was a tribe called Katura living in the neighbourhood of Mecca. Herodotus (ca. 490-425 BCE) stated that: “Arabia is the last of inhabited lands towards the south, and it is the only country which produces frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon, and ledanum” (Histories, III, 107), and adds: “Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole country is scented with them, and exhales an odour marvellously sweet” (ibid., 113).
Frankincense (lebonah: SHD 3828) was found almost exclusively in Arabia. The prophet Jeremiah mentions incense coming from Sheba (Jer. 6:20).
It was one of the four ingredients of the specially prepared holy incense (Ex. 30:34) used in both the Tabernacle and the Temple (cf. Lk. 1:9-10).
Frankincense was also uniquely used with the sacrifice offerings along with fine flour and oil (Lev. 2:1-2), but its use was forbidden with sin offerings (Lev. 5:11) or jealousy offerings (Num. 5:15). It was to be burned for a memorial, an offering made by fire on the two piles of 6 loaves each of unleavened bread upon the ‘pure’ table within the Tabernacle and the Temple (Lev. 24:5-7).
Myrrh is often referred to in conjunction with frankincense, and is associated with both the birth and death of Messiah (see Mat. 2:11; Mk. 15:23; Jn. 19:39-40).
Song of Solomon 3:6 What is that coming up from the wilderness, like a column of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of the merchant? (RSV)
Psalm 45:7b-8 Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows; 8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. (RSV)
This refers to the normal custom in the East of perfuming a bridegroom; in this particular case, the Messiah has been anointed above his fellow elohim. We see also in Nehemiah 13:5 that frankincense was considered one of the Temple treasures.
Sons of Abraham by Keturah
In Chronicles 1, Keturah is referred to as Abraham’s concubine, meaning a woman taken for the purpose of bearing sons. She is later referred to as a wife showing a change in status (cf. Gen. 25:1). She obviously became Abraham’s second wife perhaps on the death of Sarah, but it may have been beforehand.
1Chronicles 1:32-33 The sons of Ketu'rah, Abraham's concubine: she bore Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Mid'ian, Ishbak, and Shu'ah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan. 33 The sons of Mid'ian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Elda'ah. All these were the descendants of Ketu'rah. (RSV)
The sons of Keturah came to be organised into a sub-group of six tribes, a major element of which was Midian that occupied the east and south of the area of Palestine. This view was adopted as fact by the Hebrews and we may thus take it as reasonably certain (see Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, art. “Keturah’, Vol. 3, p. 8).
Zimran
Zimran was the first son of Abraham by Keturah; his name means musical or musician (SHD 2175). The main city occupied by Zimran and his descendants was called Zabram, supposedly located west of Mecca. It is thought to be the same as the Zimri of Jeremiah 25:25. It is mentioned by Jeremiah for destruction along with Elam and the kings of the Medes. Thus we are dealing with the destruction of the Saudi Arabian coastlands. Jeremiah 25 deals with the entire destruction of the Middle East commencing with Jerusalem and the princes of Judah to make them a hissing and a curse and from there on to Egypt and all the Middle East, nation by nation. We will examine this aspect separately.
Hastings’ Dictionary says of the place name Zimran:
Possibly Knobel is right in connecting it with Zabram of Ptolemy (VI.vii.5), W. of Mecca, on the Red Sea. We may perhaps compare also ZIMRI of Jer 2525. The name is derived from zemer, ‘mountain-sheep or -goat,’ this animal having doubtless been the totem of the clan. (p. 982)
We can see that the sons of Keturah moved into the Arabian peninsular before Israel even went into Egypt, and some remained there at least until Jeremiah.
Jokshan
He was the second-born son, whose name can mean snarer (BDB), hence by implication a birdcatcher; alternatively, insidious (Strong: SHD 3370).
Hastings’ Dictionary thinks it is quite plausible that Jokshan is identical with Joktan (see Tuch): “The two forms might represent respectively the Hebrew and the Aramaic pronunciation of the same word …” (ibid., p. 743). However, this is biblically impossible and Cohen finds the equation phonetically difficult. He does however identify him as the father of Sheba and Dedan (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, art. ‘Jokshan’, Vol. 2, p. 963).
Joktan was the brother of Peleg and the Hebrews descended from him moved much further abroad. The error, however, may explain another link made between two areas, one in Arabia and the other in the Hindu Cush (see the paper Sons of Shem: Part I (No. 212A)).
On Cohen’s analysis Jokshan may also be the person called Kahtan or Qahtan by the Arabs. Jokshan produced two sons, Sheba and Dedan (Gen. 25:2-3; 1Chr. 1:32), and the tribes from these brothers settled in northern Arabia.
Another Sheba and Dedan are mentioned together in Ezekiel 27; however, these are of a different lineage, being the sons of Raamah (cf. v. 22) who was a son of Cush.
The major Arab tribes are the Qahtan Arabs who came from the Yemen. They are not Ishmaelites. They are the sons of Ya’rub bin Yashjub bin Qahtan. They regard themselves as pure Arabs, while the sons of Ishmael are called Arabized Arabs. These Arabized Arabs are the progeny of Ishmael and are regarded as being adopted into the progeny of the pure Arabs and these Ishmaelites from Northwest Arabia are called ‘Adnanian Arabs.
Sheba and Dedan
The second son of Keturah by Abraham, Jokshan, had two sons Sheba and Dedan, as mentioned previously. Dedan is recorded as being the progenitor of the Asshurim, the Letushim and the Leummim (Gen. 25:3).
Confusion can arise with several of these names. For instance: although the term Asshurim here is related to Asshur (SHD 804), it refers to a different people from the Assyrians (also 804), who were descendants of Asshur son of Shem. Similarly, Sheba was the name given generations earlier to one of thirteen sons of Joktan, son of Eber (from whom the Hebrews are named).
Asshurim (SHD 805) means steps in the sense of taking steps to go somewhere. In later Jewish literature the Asshurim are described as ‘travelling merchants’.
Letushim (SHD 3912) means hammered or oppressed (Strong), directly related to a word (3913) meaning to sharpen, hammer, whet (BDB), that is, the Letushim were occupied in the sharpening of cutlery and weaponry.
Leummim (SHD 3817) means peoples or communities, from a root word meaning to gather. In later Jewish writings the Leummim are described as the ‘chief of those who inhabit the isles’, perhaps alluding to the Greek islands.
This would also help to further explain the two major Semitic Haplogroups of the Greeks being J and I with the later major haplogroup being the Hamitic E3b from North African occupation there. These sons of Keturah may be the Laconian Greeks or Spartans although they did not inhabit the islands rather the mainland. Thus two branches of the sons of Keturah may be involved in Greece.
We see with the Asshurim and Letushim that they are travellers, merchants and tinkers, all terms which could be applied to the modern-day Roma[ny] people or Gypsies. The Gypsies, however, cannot be tied to the sons of Keturah, although we can demonstrate their Semitic origin (see the paper Sons of Shem: Part I (No. 212A)).
Origin of the Name Arab
These sons of Keturah who were to become the Pure Arabs were divided into many tribes, but the ones we know as the main two lineages of the sons of Ya’rub or the Arab sons of Jokshan were:
1. Himyar of whom the most famous septs were: Zaid Al-Jamhur, Quda’a and Sakasic.
2. Kahlan whose most famous septs were: Hamdan, Anmar, Tai’, Mudhhij, Kinda, Lakhm, Judham, Azd, Aws, Khazraj, and those who became the kings of old Syria, namely the descendants of Jafna.
A tribe of the Himyar called the Quda’a moved from the Yemen and on to the Samawa semi-desert on the borders of Iraq.
Kahlan septs emigrated from the Yemen into the different parts of the Arabian peninsular prior to the breach of the Ma’rib Dam, which is referred to as the Great Flood (Sail Al’’Arim). The area of the Queen of Sheba in Southwest Arabia in that part of the Yemen was very rich while the dam there was operational. Its gates are still there today, with the nearby town buildings in varying states of decomposition. The last repairs to the dam wall were built from part of the town buildings. This shows that the city and area was in decline even then. The dam was built ca. 600 BCE and collapsed ca. 600 CE, by which time it and the culture there were no longer of importance. During its rule from before the Kingdom of Israel until the Romans suppressed its influence, it also controlled the land across the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa and that accounts for the extension of the legends of Sheba into Africa.