References (30)
And Bethuel begot Rebekah, these eight Milcah bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
And it came to pass, while he was still speaking, that Rebekah came out [even before he had finished his prayer], born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, and she had her pitcher on her shoulder.
Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the well.
It happened that when he saw the ring and bracelets on his sister's hands and heard the words that Rebekah, his sister, spoke when she said, "This is what the man said to me," he came out to the man, and behold, he was standing with the camels at the well.
And before I had finished speaking to my heart, behold, Rebekah came with her pitcher on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. And I said to her, 'Let me drink, I beg you'.
Behold, Rebekah is before you; take her and go, and let her be your master's son's wife, as the Lord (Yahweh) has spoken."
The servant took out jewels of silver and jewels of gold and fine clothing and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and her mother.
They called Rebekah and said to her, "Will you go with this man?" She replied, "I will go."
They sent away Rebekah, their sister, and her nurse [Deborah, see ], and Abraham's servant and his men.
They blessed Rebekah and said to her:
"Our sister, may you become the mother
of thousands and tens of thousands
and may your seed (your children) take possession
of the gates of those who hate them."
Rebekah rose with her maidservants, and they rode on camels and followed the man. The servant took Rebekah and went on his way.
Rebekah looked up and when she saw Isaac, she got off her came and
Isaac brought her [Rebekah] into his mother Sarah’s tent [welcomed her into their family, introduced her to the family traditions, etc.]. He married Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. Thus Isaac was comforted [in his grief] after his mother.
And it came to pass
(Hebr. vajehi) that Isaac was 40 years old when he took
Rebekah, daughter of the Aramean Bethuel from
Paddan-Aram and sister of the Aramean Laban, as his wife.[This was the area around Haran in Upper Mesopotamia. Isaac lives to be 180 years old
(), which means that he still has 140 years left of his earthly life when he marries. In Jewish culture, men are around 18-20 and women are often 14-15 at the time of marriage, but life expectancy is 70-80 years.]
Isaac pleaded (prayed to – Hebr. atar) to the Lord (Yahweh) for his wife, because she was barren. The Lord (Yahweh) answered his prayer (Hebr. atar) and Rebekah became pregnant. Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah and 60 years old when his prayer was answered, see verses 20 and 26. It was a persistent prayer for nearly 20 years. The word for prayer here is unusual.
And Isaac loved Esau because he got to eat his game [literally: "for game in his mouth"], while Rebekah loved Jacob.
The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife." – [He thought:] "Otherwise, the men of the place would kill me for Rebekah's sake, because she is so beautiful to look at." [Isaac does the same thing his father Abraham did twice before, see ; . As in Abraham's case, fear was the reason for the lie.]
It happened that after he had been there a long time, the Philistine king Avimelech looked out of a window and saw Isaac (Hebr. Yitzchak) laughing (fooling around, having fun, joking, "playfully fighting" – Hebr. tsachaq) with Rebekah, his wife.
[Hebrew tsachaq is similar to Isaac's name, which means laughter, see , . The same word is used by Potiphar's wife when she accuses Joseph of assaulting her, see , . The word is also used to describe how Ishmael mocked Isaac, see . All of this reinforces how Isaac ignored and "mocked" God's promise of protection, and lied to protect himself.]
These [two women] became a source of bitterness (a sorrow, the word can also mean rebellion) for Isaac and Rebekah.
[The fact that only the older brother Esau is mentioned, and that the parents are disappointed in him, leads the reader to suspect that this will be developed further in the next chapter. Rebekah uses Esau's marriage to the Hittites as a cover to send Jacob to Paddan-Aram to find a wife for him, see ; .]
Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. And Esau went out into the field to hunt a deer and bring it home.
Rebecca spoke to her son Jacob and said, "Behold, I heard your father speaking to your brother Esau, saying,
Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.
And Rebekah took the choice (finest, best) clothes [some kind of festive attire] of Esau, her older son, which she had in the house, and put them on her younger son Jacob.
And the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah, and she sent for Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, "Behold, your brother Esau is touching you, mourning (Hebr. nacham) [feeling sorrow, but will soon act] and intends to kill you.
And Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life (am weary of life) because of the daughters of Heth [whom Esau married, see ]. If [now also] Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, one of these daughters of the land, why should I live?"
And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban the Aramean, the son of Bethuel and brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative and that he was Rebekah's son. Then she ran away and told her father.
And Deborah
(Hebr. Devorah),
Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried below
Bethel under the oak tree, and it was named Alon-Bachot
[meaning: "the oak tree that weeps"].
There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife, and there I buried Leah.
[Some may object that the promise applied to Isaac, since he was Sarah's child. In the next example, he therefore mentions Rebekah, who was Isaac's only wife. Here, God chooses the younger twin before they are even born and have done neither good nor evil.]
But not only that, Rebekah also had two sons by one and the same man, our father Isaac.
