Which oracle foreshadows this new stress that will characterize the connection ranging from their sons, Jacob and you may Esau, since numbers on the Genesis narrative so that as eponymous forefathers away from Israel and you may Edom
The following (just after Sarah) of matriarchs on the ancestor stories of Genesis, Rebekah the most preferred ladies-with regards to this lady active role and her command over incidents-on the Hebrew Bible. The brand new wonderfully created narratives when you look at the Genesis twenty four–twenty seven explain just how she will get Isaac’s wife, gets birth so you’re able to twin sons once initial barrenness, last but not least receives an important put in the latest origin on her behalf more youthful kid, Jacob, who’s destined to become predecessor of all the Israel. Regardless of if problematic for some, the girl deception inside manipulating Isaac to possess Jacob’s work for contributes to the girl depiction due to the fact an enthusiastic admirable and you can cocky woman.
, 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 bbw dating sites Italy 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 20 years of marriage, when Rebekah doesn’t become pregnant, Isaac prays to help you Jesus, who features the newest prayer that she get conceive. Several other sort of-scene, that brand new bare spouse, therefore goes into new Rebekah story, calling awareness of the new unique character of your own students ultimately produced to help you her. A good divine oracle was treated to the lady whenever she’s pregnant; God proclaims you to “two countries” have her uterus and can contend with one another ().
Around this woman is “loved” () because of the the girl partner, the original woman regarding the Hebrew Bible to have which marital love are announced
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.