CHAPTER 25
1 Forsooth Abraham wedded another wife, Keturah by name,
2 which childed to him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.
3 Also Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. Forsooth the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.
4 And soothly of Midian was born Ephah, and Epher, and Hanoch, and Abidah, and Eldaah; all these were the sons of Keturah.
5 And Abraham gave all things which he had in possession to Isaac;
6 soothly he gave gifts to the sons of [the] concubines, that is, secondary wives; and Abraham, while he lived yet, separated them from Isaac, his son, to the east coast.
7 Forsooth the days of the life of Abraham were an hundred and threescore and fifteen years;
8 and he failed, and died in [a] good eld age, and of great age, and full of days, and he was gathered to his people.
9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the double den, which is set in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, even against Mamre,
10 which den he bought of the sons of Heth; and he was buried there, and Sarah his wife.
11 And after the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac his son, which dwelled beside the pit by name of him that liveth and seeth.
12 These be the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whom Hagar Egyptian, handmaid of Sarah, childed to Abraham;
13 and these be the names of the sons of Ishmael, in their names and generations. The first begotten of Ishmael was Nebajoth, afterward Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
14 and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa,
15 and Hadar, and Tema, and Jetur, and Naphish, and Kedemah.
16 These were the sons of Ishmael, and these were the names by castles, and towns of them, [the] twelve princes of their lineages.
17 And the years of [the] life of Ishmael were made an hundred and seven and thirty years, and he failed, and died, and was put to his people.
18 Forsooth he inhabited from Havilah till to Shur, that beholdeth Egypt, as men entereth into [the] Assyrians; he died before all his brethren.
19 Also these be the generations of Isaac, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac,
20 and when Isaac was of forty years, he wedded a wife, Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, of Syria, of Mesopotamia, the sister of Laban.
21 And Isaac besought the Lord for his wife, for she was barren; and the Lord heard him, and gave conceiving to Rebecca.
22 But the little children were hurtled together in her womb; and she said, If it was so to coming [or to come] to me, what need was it to conceive? And she went to ask counsel of the Lord,
23 which answered, and said, Two folks be in thy womb, and two peoples shall be separated from thy womb, and one people shall overturn a people, and the more shall serve the less.
24 Then the time of child-bearing came, and lo! two children were found in her womb.
25 He that went out first was red, and all rough in the manner of a skin; and his name was called Esau.
26 Anon the other went out, and held with his hand the heel of his brother; and therefore he called him Jacob*. Isaac was sixty years eld, when the little children were born.
27 And when they were waxen, Esau was a man knowing of hunting, and a man an earth-tiller; forsooth Jacob was a simple man, and dwelled in tabernacles.
28 Isaac loved Esau, for he ate of the hunting of Esau; and Rebecca loved Jacob.
29 Soothly Jacob seethed pottage; and when Esau came weary from the field,
30 he said to Jacob, Give thou to me of this red seething, for I am full weary; for which cause his name was called Edom or Red.
31 And Jacob said to him, Sell to me the rights of the first begotten child.
32 Esau answered, Lo! I die, what shall the first begotten things profit to me?
33 Jacob said, Therefore swear thou to me. Therefore Esau swore, and sold the first engendered things.
34 And so when he had taken bread and pottage, Esau ate and drank, and went forth, and charged or cared little that he had sold the rights of the first begotten child.
* CHAPTER 25:26 The name sounds like the Hebrew for ‘He who takes by the heel, or supplants’.