Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy structure of Abraham's
Horite people reveals that the rulers had two wives. The first
was a half-sister, as was Sarah to Abraham. The second wife was
usually a patrilineal cousin, as was Keturah to Abraham. The
wives maintained separate households in quite distant
settlements on a north-south axis. Sarah resided in Hebron and
Keturah, of the royal House of Sheba, resided at Beersheba to
the south. Alice C. Linsley According to Genesis 25:1, Keturah
is described as Abraham’s wife. The word here in Hebrew is
ishshah, which means woman or wife. However, according to I
Chronicles 1:32, Keturah was Abraham’s concubine. The Hebrew
here is piylegesh or piyegesh meaning concubine. Keturah can’t
be both a wife and concubine, so which is she? I Chronicles
reflects a time long after the events described and is not
consistent with the overwhelming evidence that Keturah was a
wife. The confusion may be due to the Chronicles' post-exilic
reading of Genesis 25:6: "To the sons of his c