1 Chronicles 1:32

Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and Dedan.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(32) The sons of Keturah.—An extract from Genesis 25:1-4.

Medan is very likely a mere repetition of Midian, due to a mistake of some ancient copyist. Genesis 25:3 adds, “And the sons of Dedan were Asshuriin, and Letushim, and Leummim;” which is, perhaps, an interpolation, as the three names are of a different form from the others in the section; and the chronicler would hardly have omitted them had he found them in his text.

Midian.—The most important of these tribes. The Midianites dwelt, or rather wandered, in the peninsula of Sinai.

Sheba, and Dedan.—See 1Chronicles 1:9, where these names appear as sons of Cush. The names may have been common to different tribes settled in different regions. Sheba (Assyr. Saba’â’a) Massa, Tema, and Adbeel, are described by Tiglath-pileser as lying “on the border of the sunset lands”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

28-54 The genealogy is from hence confined to the posterity of Abraham. Let us take occasion from reading these lists of names, to think of the multitudes that have gone through this world, have done their parts in it, and then quitted it. As one generation, even of sinful men, passes away, another comes. Ec 1:4; Nu 32:14, and will do so while the earth remains. Short is our passage through time into eternity. May we be distinguished as the Lord's people.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Keturah, Abraham's concubine - This passage, and Genesis 25:6, sufficiently prove that the position of Keturah was not that of the full wife, but of the "secondary" or "concubine wife" Judges 19:1 so common among Orientals.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

1Ch 1:32, 33. Sons of Keturah.

32. sons of Keturah—These became founders of nomadic tribes in the north of Arabia and Syria, as Midian of the Midianites (Ge 36:35; Jud 6:2).

and Shuah—from whom Bildad sprang (Job 2:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The sons of Abraham,.... The famous and well known ancestor of the Jews; of Ishmael his firstborn, and his posterity; of his sons by Keturah; and of Isaac and his sons, an account is given from hence to the end of 1 Chronicles 1:34 entirely agreeing with that in Genesis 25:1.

Geneva Study Bible

Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's {h} concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and Dedan.

(h) Read Ge 25:4.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

32. Medan, Midian] Kindred tribes often bore names only slightly differing in form.

Midian] In Jdg 8:24 the Midianites are reckoned as Ishmaelites.

Sheba and Dedan] The same two names occur in 1 Chronicles 1:9 among the descendants of Ham. See note there.

32, 33. The Descent of Arabian Tribes from Abraham through Keturah (= Genesis 25:1-4)

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 32, 33, contain the list of Abraham's sons by Keturah, here called one of his concubines; but in Genesis, "a wife," and apparently not taken by Abraham till after Sarah's death (Genesis 25:1-4). The sons are six; the grandsons, two by the son placed second in order, and five by the son placed fourth in order; in all thirteen names. But the passage in Genesis gives also three great-grandsons, through the second grandson. All the thirteen are in the Authorized Version identical in the two places and in the Hebrew text; but in the Septuagint slight differences occur, as Zembram, Iexan, Madam, Sobak, Soe, Daidan, Sabai, Opher, Abida, and Eldada here, for Zombran, Iezan, Madal, Iesbok, Soie, Dedan, Saba, Apheir, Abeida, and Eldaga there. It is carefully stated in Genesis 25:5, 6, after the enumeration of Keturah's children, and in spite of her having been called "wife" in the first verse, that "Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his sou, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country." 1 Chronicles 1:32

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The names of the generations (תּולדות) of Ishmael (Hebr. Yishma'el) correspond to those in Genesis 25:12-15, and have been there explained. In 1 Chronicles 1:32. also, the names of the thirteen descendants of Abraham by Keturah, six sons and seven grandsons, agree with Genesis 25:1-4 (see commentary on that passage); only the tribes mentioned in Genesis 25:3, which were descended from Dedan the grandson of Keturah, are omitted. From this Bertheau wrongly concludes that the chronicler probably did not find these names in his copy of the Pentateuch. The reason of the omission is rather this, that in Genesis the great-grandchildren are not themselves mentioned, but only the tribes descended from the grandchildren, while the chronicler wished to enumerate only the sons and grandsons. Keturah is called פּילגשׁ after Genesis 25:6, where Keturah and Hagar are so named.