This oracle foreshadows the fresh stress which can characterize the connection anywhere between her sons, Jacob and you will Esau, given that numbers regarding the Genesis story and also as eponymous ancestors of Israel and you may Edom
Another (just after Sarah) of the matriarchs regarding the ancestor tales of Genesis, Rebekah is one of the most well-known girls-in terms of this lady productive role along with her control of events-in the Hebrew Bible. The new incredibly developed narratives within the Genesis 24–27 establish just how she becomes Isaac’s partner, gets birth so you can dual sons just after initial barrenness, and finally obtains the key devote the latest lineage on her young child, Jacob, that is bound to end up being predecessor of the many Israel. Even in the event challenging to a few, the woman deception within the influencing Isaac for Jacob’s benefit contributes to the lady depiction because the an admirable and you can cocky 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,” ).
Immediately after twenty years out of wedding, when Rebekah does not become pregnant, Isaac prays in order to Goodness, exactly who offers the brand new prayer one to she get conceive. Various other variety of-scene, compared to this new barren wife, therefore comes into the newest Rebekah tale, calling awareness of the latest unique character of the children at some point created so you can the woman. An excellent divine oracle try treated to help you the lady when she is expecting; God proclaims you to definitely “a couple regions” have been in the girl womb and certainly will contend with each other ().
Indeed there she is “loved” () because of the their husband, the initial woman on the Hebrew Bible getting just who relationship love is declared
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.
