This oracle foreshadows the latest stress that can characterize the partnership anywhere between this lady sons, Jacob and you may Esau, since the rates about Genesis story and as eponymous forefathers out-of Israel and you will Edom

Another (shortly after Sarah) of the matriarchs about ancestor reports of Genesis, Rebekah is one of the most preferred women-in terms of the woman active part and her command over incidents-regarding the Hebrew Bible. The latest beautifully built narratives into the Genesis 24–twenty seven define just how she will get Isaac’s spouse, gets beginning in order to twin sons shortly after initially barrenness, last but not least receives an important input the fresh ancestry for her younger kid, Jacob, that is bound to end up being predecessor of all Israel. Regardless of if problematic for some, this lady deceit during the manipulating Isaac having Jacob’s work for causes the lady depiction just like the a keen admirable and you will 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 following two decades out of relationship, when Rebekah doesn’t become pregnant, Isaac prays so you can Jesus, whom grants the brand new prayer one she will get consider. Several other type-scene, that brand new barren girlfriend, therefore comes into the newest Rebekah tale, getting in touch with awareness of the fresh new unique role of your own pupils at some point produced to help you the woman. An effective divine oracle try treated to the woman when she is pregnant; Goodness proclaims one “a couple nations” come into the woman womb and certainly will compete with one another ().

There she’s “loved” () from the the woman spouse, the original woman regarding Hebrew Bible having who marital like is 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 Houston local hookup 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.