It oracle foreshadows brand new stress that can characterize the relationship between the lady sons, Jacob and you will Esau, because the data about Genesis story so when eponymous ancestors regarding Israel and you will Edom
The second (once Sarah) of the matriarchs from the ancestor tales out of Genesis, Rebekah the most prominent ladies-in terms of their energetic character along with her control over situations-on Hebrew Bible. The brand new remarkably created narratives in Genesis twenty four–twenty seven define exactly how she becomes Isaac’s spouse, provides delivery in order to dual sons immediately following first barrenness, finally gets the main invest the brand new origin on her younger guy, Jacob, that is destined to getting ancestor of the many Israel. Regardless of if challenging to some, the lady deceit from inside the influencing Isaac for Jacob’s work with leads to their portrayal as the an enthusiastic admirable and you may assertive lady.
, the longest chapter in the Book of Genesis. A spouse for Isaac is to be obtained from his uncle Nahor’s family; the ensuing cousin marriage, with Rebekah and Isaac both members of the same kinship group, serves to emphasize the importance of their lineage. Abraham dispatches a trusted but unnamed servant to Mesopotamia, the land of his birth and where some of his family still resides, to find a wife for his son. Rebekah secures her role as wife-elect for Isaac by befriending the servant and his ten camels in the famous well scene, which has been called a type-scene-a narrative episode with certain expected motifs that appears at the critical juncture in the life of a hero. Indeed, the account of Rebekah at the well is the premier biblical example of such a scene. It ostensibly draws attention to Isaac, but, in his absence, reveals the beauty and especially the virtues of his wife-to-be.
After the well incident, Rebekah brings the servant home, enters into the marriage arrangement, and sets off to meet her future husband. She seems to have some input into the marriage negotiations, or at least into the decision about her departure from her homeland and birth family (–58). When she first sees Isaac in Gen –65, she dismounts from her camel and veils herself, a nonverbal act perhaps signaling her status as a soon-to-be betrothed woman as it does for elite women in ancient Assyria. That she dons the betrothal veil herself may also indicate her independence. Once she arrives in the promised land, she enters Isaac’s home (called “his mother Sarah’s tent,” ).
Just after twenty years away from marriage, when Rebekah does not become pregnant, Isaac prays to help you Goodness, just who has brand new prayer one to she can get conceive. Various other types of-world, regarding this new bare spouse, hence enters brand new Rebekah tale, calling attention to the special part of the children ultimately produced to the woman. Good divine oracle is actually treated so you can the girl whenever she’s expecting; Goodness proclaims that “a couple regions” can be found in the girl uterus and certainly will compete with both ().
Around she’s “loved” () by the their spouse, the initial girl on Hebrew Bible for just who relationship love is actually stated
In the next episode in the Rebekah story, Isaac passes her off as his sister. This narrative, similar in many ways to two such accounts about chat room jordanian Sarah, at first seems to contribute little to the role or character of Rebekah. However, it does differentiate her in a significant way from Sarah; in one of the two wife-sister episodes in which she figures (Gen –14, 19), Sarah seems to have had sexual relations with Pharaoh to ensure the safety of her husband and their household, although this is not the case in the second wife-sister story involving Sarah (Gen 20: 1–8). Rebekah’s marital fidelity, in contrast, is never compromised (Gen 26:7–11). Her relationship with her husband is consistently monogamous, unlike the other matriarchs of Genesis: Sarah, who provides her husband with the slave wife Hagar and perhaps has extramarital sex with the pharaoh; and Rachel and Leah, who are co-wives and also provide slave wives to Jacob.
