Which oracle foreshadows brand new stress that define the relationship between her sons, Jacob and you can Esau, given that figures from the Genesis story and also as eponymous ancestors of Israel and you can Edom
Another (immediately after Sarah) of your matriarchs on ancestor stories away from Genesis, Rebekah the most popular people-in terms of the girl effective role and her control over occurrences-about Hebrew Bible. The new wonderfully created narratives when you look at the Genesis twenty four–twenty seven describe just how she becomes Isaac’s spouse, provides delivery so you can dual sons immediately following very first barrenness Inmate dating site, last but most certainly not least obtains the primary added the fresh new ancestry on her young kid, Jacob, who’s destined to become ancestor of all Israel. Regardless of if difficult for some, the lady deceit inside influencing Isaac to possess Jacob’s work for leads to this lady depiction just like the an admirable and you can cocky girl.
, 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,” ).
Immediately after two decades from matrimony, when Rebekah fails to become pregnant, Isaac prays to help you God, just who grants the fresh new prayer one she get conceive. Some other particular-world, that the latest barren spouse, thus gets in the fresh new Rebekah facts, getting in touch with focus on brand new unique character of your pupils sooner born so you’re able to her. A good divine oracle is actually handled to the girl whenever this woman is expecting; God proclaims one to “a couple of places” come in the lady uterus and can contend with one another ().
Around she’s “loved” () because of the the lady husband, the first lady regarding Hebrew Bible to possess who relationship love was 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 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.
