Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [40]
Abraham also realizes that his son Isaac should have a wife but does not want a woman of Canaan—one more dig at the Canaanites by the Genesis author. In one of the longest narratives in Genesis, Abraham sends a servant back to his homeland. At Nahor, near Haran, the servant encounters a beautiful girl at a well. Again there is a confusion of place and personal names. Nahor is the name of a town but it is also the name of another of Abraham’s brothers. The girl draws water for him and Abraham’s servant treats this as a sign from God that this is the girl for Isaac. She is Rebekah, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel. Abraham’s servant is welcomed into the house by Rebekah’s older brother Laban, and in an elaborate negotiation, the two strike a deal for Rebekah to become Isaac’s wife.
After Sarah’s death, old Abraham decides he’s not done sowing oats yet either. He takes another wife, Keturah, who has six more of Abraham’s children. These are the ancestors of other Arabic tribes, including the Midianites, who later figure in the story of Moses. When Abraham finally dies at age 175, he is buried along side Sarah in the cave on the site he had purchased at Hebron. Another genealogy follows Abraham’s death and traces the children of Ishmael, who also had twelve sons who were later organized into twelve tribes.
Like Abraham, Isaac is promised the land and many descendants. He is like Abraham in another respect too. Once again there is a famine and God tells Isaac to go to the land of King Abimelech, with whom Abraham had an earlier dispute. In a tale that mirrors Abraham’s lie about his wife, Sarah, to the Pharaoh, Isaac tells the local people that Rebekah is his sister, because he too fears he might be killed because Rebekah is so desirable. When King Abimelech sees Isaac fondling Rebekah in a field, he says, “So she is your wife! Why then did you say, “She is my sister’?” Abimelech orders no one to bother Isaac, who goes on to prosper. King Abimelech is identified here, and in an earlier episode, as the “King of the Philistines,” the tribe that will play such a prominent part in the early history of Israel. This is another example of an apparent error in the chronology on the writer’s part. The Philistines were part of the invasion of socalled Sea Peoples and did not enter this area in large numbers until after 1200 BCE, long after these events would have taken place.
PLOT SUMMARY: JACOB AND ESAU
Like Isaac’s mother, the beautiful Rebekah is also barren but she conceives and bears twin sons after Isaac prays to God. The firstborn is Esau (“red”); the second son, born gripping his older brother’s heel, is Jacob (“he takes by the heel” or “he supplants”). The common mythic theme of hostile twins is played out here as accounting for the two related tribes, the Israelites and the Edomites. Jacob, the younger, is a trickster, a classic mythic character, like Odysseus of Greek mythology. He becomes a shepherd and was favored by his mother. Esau is the hunter, slow-witted and easily deceived, but he is Isaac’s favorite. Jacob first gets Esau to sell his birthright as the firstborn son for a pot of stew, also red, emphasizing the origin of the name Edom, which, like Esau, means “red.”
In a more serious deceit, Jacob is prompted by his mother to trick his father, Isaac, who is losing his sight. Rebekah cooks Isaac’s favorite meal, then covers Jacob with a kid skin so that he will seem to be as hairy as Esau. Jacob tricks his father into giving him the deathbed blessing usually bestowed on the firstborn son. When Esau finds out what Jacob has done, he poignantly asks his father for another blessing. Isaac tells Esau that he will live away from the fat of the land and shall live by the sword. His father also says Esau will serve his brother but that one day