Before long Abraham himself also married again, and by KETURAH his second wife, became the father of six children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Gen. xxv. 2), the ancestors of Arabian and Midianitish tribes. Lest they should dispute the inheritance with Isaac, the prudent patriarch, while he yet lived, presented them with gifts, and sent them away into the south-east country (Gen. xxv. 6) where their descendants settled along the borders of the Elanitic Gulf in considerable numbers. And then the _Father of the Faithful, the Friend of God_, being 175 years old, had reached the term of life allotted to him. In _a good old age, and full of years_, he was gathered unto his people, and was laid by Isaac and Ishmael also, who had come up from the wild desert of Paran to assist in these last sad offices, by the side of his beloved Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah[33]. CHAPTER III. _THE HISTORY OF ISAAC._ GEN. XXV.–XXVII. B.C. 1822–1760. FOR nineteen years after their marriage Isaac and Rebekah were childless. But at length, in answer to earnest prayer, Rebekah became the mother of twin sons, ESAU (_hairy, rough_) and JACOB (_he that holds by the heel_, or _supplanter_). The bitter enmity afterwards to exist between the brothers was foreshadowed even before their birth, and as they grew the difference in their characters became still more prominent. Esau became a _cunning hunter_, wild and daring, even as his rough and robust frame betokened, revelling like a true son of the desert in the excitement of the chase. Jacob, on the other hand, was a quiet domestic youth, _dwelling in tents_, the favourite of his mother, while Esau, by a not uncommon caprice of affection, was the favourite of the gentle retiring Isaac, whose keen relish for savoury food was gratified by his success in the hunting-field (Gen. xxv. 24–28).