The Book of Genesis is set in the Fertile Crescent between 2000 and 1000 B.C.E. It places Israelite origins in Mesopotamia, the "land between" the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. By the 3rd millennium B.C.E., people speaking Semitic languages had settled in this "cradle of civilization," founding city-states such as Abraham’s birthplace Ur, from whence he set out for Canaan.
. . . After their settlement in Canaan in the 13th century B.C.E., the Israelite tribes went through a period of political and religious disarray until a monarchy was finally established. Under David and Solomon in the 10th century B.C.E.,
. . . In 722 B.C.E., Assyria, the rising power in Mesopotamia, conquered the northern kingdom and exiled its people. The captives, the so-called "Ten Lost Tribes," were probably absorbed into the general population. The kingdom of Judah survived until 586 B.C.E., when it fell victim to Nebuchadnezzar, king of the new Mesopotamian empire of Babylonia.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode1/*****
The Hebrews, a Semitic-speaking people, first appeared in Mesopotamia. For instance, Abraham's family were native to Sumer. But between 1900 and 1500 B.C., the Hebrews migrated from Mesopotamia to Canaan and then into Egypt. At this time, a tribe of Hebrews who claimed to be the descendants of Abraham began to call themselves Israelites ("soldiers of God").
http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture4b.html*****8
The source that introduces us to people called Hebrews is the Book of Genesis, of the Five Books of Moses, or the Old Testament, Genesis 14:13 describing a man called Abraham as a Hebrew. Genesis describes Abraham as the son Terah and the brother of Nahor and Haran, a family that dwelled at Ur, in the land of the Chaldeans. According to Genesis, Terah took his family to Haran, where he died. And from Haran, Abraham migrated with his family into Canaan. Some believe this was toward the end of the 2000s BCE, long before the Chaldeans established themselves in Sumer. Some others speculate that Abraham's migration from Haran came much later. In recent years, archaeologists have concluded that we have no evidence as to dates regarding Abraham.
The word Hebrew has been associated with the word Hiberu found in writing sent to Egypt by one of the small states that Egypt had left behind when it withdrew from Canaan in the 1300s BCE. These states were disturbed by the arrival of nomadic tribes that came in waves across generations. Hiberu meant outsider and might have referred to a great variety of migrants. The connection between the words Hebrew and Hiberu, moreover, is still being questioned.
The question remains for some whether the Hebrews were the original people on this earth or whether they derived genetically from those Homo sapiens believed to have been in Africa some 130,000 years ago - the latter suggesting that like others the Hebrews passed through a period of primitive hunting and gathering and the animism common to hunter-gatherers, including the belief that the world worked through the magic of many gods.
The Hebrews described in the Old Testament appear to have been semi-nomadic herders of sheep and goats and occasional farmers, without knowledge of metal working, sophisticated craftsmanship or a written language. Like other nomadic herders, they were tent dwellers - as Abraham is described in Genesis 13:3. And as was common among herders, the Hebrews had a masculine god of the sky and weather. The Hebrews organized themselves around their extended families, and Hebrew families were combined into kinship groups governed by a council of elders that left the head of a family with a sense of self-rule. These heads of families were males with absolute authority over their wives and children, and they were the priests for their families, each family having its own sacred images.
Typical of pastoral peoples, Hebrews saw vengeance as necessary for justice - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They believed in collective guilt: that an extended family, clan, or tribe was responsible for the acts of one of its members - a view that was to color their picture of divine acts of vengeance. Like other peoples, the Hebrews saw their god of the sky as concerned with them rather than as a god for all peoples. Genesis 15:18 describes their god as making a covenant with Abraham, saying: To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h1/ch04.htm******
About that last statement: "Genesis 15:18 describes their god as making a covenant with Abraham, saying: To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates."
hmmmmmmmmm......
". . . a sign of the covenant between God and the Jews, who are descended from Isaac, son of Abraham's old age. Abraham also received the promise of Canaan for his people.
. . . Muslims believe that Arabs are descended from Abraham and Hagar through their son Ishmael. Abraham is further regarded as an ancestor of Muhammad. "
http://www.answers.com/topic/abrahamSounds like the Bible (if you want to use it as the authority) is ceding the land to Abraham's descendants - which include the Jews AND Muslims. (oops - looks like God made the same mistake the Brits did.)
Wait a minute - who's this? In the Book of Genesis, Keturah or Ketura (קְטוּרָה "Incense", Standard Hebrew Qətura, Tiberian Hebrew Qəṭûrāh) is the woman whom Abraham marries after the death of Sarah. She bears him six sons, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. <**That he sent far far away from his son, Isaac.***>
She is styled "Abraham's concubine" (1 Chr. 1:32). Abraham married her probably after Sarah's death (Gen. 25:1-6). He also sent the sons he had by Keturah to live in the east far from his son Isaac. Rabbinic lore (midrash) holds that Keturah is Hagar.
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