The story of your own wooing away from Rebekah spread during the Genesis twenty four

So it oracle foreshadows brand new tensions which can characterize the connection between the girl sons, Jacob and you can Esau, as numbers on Genesis narrative so when eponymous ancestors regarding Israel and you will Edom

The second (shortly after Sarah) of your matriarchs from the ancestor tales from Genesis, Rebekah is one of the most well-known females-in terms of the lady energetic character along with her control over events-from the Hebrew Bible. The wondrously created narratives within the Genesis 24–27 describe how she gets Isaac’s partner, gets delivery to help you twin sons shortly after first barrenness, lastly receives the primary input the brand new origin on her behalf younger guy, Jacob, that is destined to become predecessor of all the Israel. Although problematic to some, their deceit for the manipulating Isaac having Jacob’s work for causes the girl portrayal since the an enthusiastic admirable and assertive 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,” ).

Shortly after twenty years out of marriage, whenever Rebekah fails to become pregnant, Isaac prays so you can Goodness, just who offers the fresh prayer one to she will get conceive. Other kind of-scene, that the latest barren girlfriend https://datingmentor.org/escort/indianapolis, hence enters the latest Rebekah tale, calling focus on the new special role of the students ultimately created to the woman. A beneficial divine oracle are addressed to her whenever she is expecting; Goodness proclaims one “a couple nations” can be found in the girl uterus and will compete with one another ().

Around she is “loved” () of the the woman partner, the initial lady on the Hebrew Bible for who relationship love is actually proclaimed

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.