naturally suggest itself after J's account of the death of Abraham had been suppressed in accordance with P's chronology. The death of Sarah is likewise unrecorded by J or E.
XXV. 1-6.—The Sons of Ḳeṭurah (J? R?).
The Arabian tribes with whom the Israelites acknowledged a looser kinship than with the Ishmaelites or Edomites are here represented as the offspring of Abraham by a second marriage (cf. 1 Ch. 132f.).
The names Midian, Sheba, Dedan (see below) show that these
Ḳeṭurean peoples must be sought in N Arabia, and in the tract of
country partly assigned to the Ishmaelites in v.18. The fact that in
Ju. 824 Midianites are classed as Ishmaelites (cf. Gn. 3725ff.) points to
some confusion between the two groups, which in the absence of a
Yahwistic genealogy of Ishmael it is impossible altogether to clear up.
We. (Comp.2 293) has dropped a hint that Ḳeṭurah may be but a traditional
variant of Hagar;[1] Ho. conjectures that the names in 2-4 are
taken from J's lost Ishmaelite genealogy; and Kent (SOT, i. 101) thinks
it not improbable that Ḳeṭurah was originally the wife of Ishmael.
Glaser (ii. 450) considers the Ḳeṭureans remains of the ancient Minæan
people, and not essentially different from the Ishmaelites and Edomites.
See, further, on v.18 below.
Source.—(a) The genealogy (1-4) contains slight traces of J in (
Hebrew characters), 3,;
(Hebrew characters) 4 (cf. 1029 919); P is excluded by (Hebrew characters), and the discrepancy with
107 as to Sheba and Dedan; while E appears not to have contained any
genealogies at all. The vv. must therefore be assigned to some Yahwistic
source, in spite of the different origin given for Sheba in 1028.—(b)
The section as a whole cannot, however, belong to the primary
Yahwistic document; because there the death of Abraham had already
been recorded in ch. 24, and 2436 refers back to 255.[2] We must conclude
that 251-6 is the work of a compiler, who has incorporated the genealogy,
and taken v.5 from its original position (see on 2436) to bring it into connexion
with Abraham's death. These changes may have been made in
a revised edition of J (so Gu.); but in this case we must suppose that
the account of Abraham's death was also transferred from ch. 24, to
be afterwards replaced by the notice of P. It seems to me easier
(in view of 11b and 18) to hold that the adjustments were effected during
the final redaction of the Pent., in accordance with the chronological
scheme of P.
