Her name was Rebekah,and she was the daughter of Bethuel,the son of Nahor.She had a brother called Laban,and she had heard of an uncle,called Abraham,who had moved into the land of Canaan,years and years before she was born.Then the messenger knew that he had found the girl he was looking for.He went to Bethuel and explained his errand.He told the story of his master and how Abraham was one of the richest and most powerful men of the country near the Mediterranean Sea.And when he had duly impressed the people of Ur with a display of the rugs and the silver earrings and the golden goblets,which he had brought from Hebron,he asked that Rebekah might accompany him to become the wife of young Isaac.
Both the father and the brother were more than willing to make such an alliance.In those days,the girls were rarely consulted in such matters.But Bethuel was a reasonable man,who wanted his daughter to be happy,and he asked Rebekah whether she was willing to go to a foreign country and marry her cousin whom she had never seen.
She answered,“I will go,”and made ready to leave immediately.
Her old nurse accompanied her.So did many of her maids.And they all rode their camels,wondering what sort of strange new country this might be of which the messenger had painted such a glorious picture.
The first impression was a very happy one.
It was towards evening.
The camels were plodding through the dust of the road.In the distance,a man was seen walking in the fields.
When he heard the tinkling bells,he stopped.
He recognised his own animals.He rushed forward and beheld the veiled face of the woman who was to be his wife.
With a few words the servant told the young master all he had done and how Rebekah was as good as she was beautiful.
Then Isaac considered himself a lucky man (as indeed he was)and he married Rebekah and a short time later Abraham died and was buried by the side of his wife Sarah in the cave of Machpelah.And Isaac and Rebekah inherited all the fields and the flocks and everything that had belonged to Abraham and they were young and happy,and when evening came,they used to sit outside their tents and play with their boys who were twins;and the name of the elder was Esau,which meant the “hairy one,”and the name of the younger was Jacob,and they were to have many strange adventures,as we shall now tell you.
For Esau and Jacob were as little alike as any two brothers have ever been.
Esau was a rough and honest young fellow,as brown as a bear.He had strong,hairy arms,and was as swift as a horse.He spent all his time out in the open,hunting and trapping,and living with the beasts and the birds of the fields.
Jacob,on the other hand,rarely strayed far away from home.He was his mother's darling,and Rebekah was very foolish in the way she spoiled him.
Big,noisy Esau,who always smelled of camels and goats,and who was for ever bringing puppies home from the stable into the house,did not please her at all.She thought him a dull fellow,only interested in commonplace things.But Jacob,with his mild ways and his pleasant smile,impressed his mother as a very bright boy.She was sorry that he had not been born ahead of Esau.Then he would have been his father's heir,and now all of Isaac's riches were to go to a country bumpkin,who hated fine rugs and fine furniture,and who was no better than one of the sheepmen of the ranch,and hated the bother of being rich and belonging to a famous family.
But facts were facts,even in those days,and Jacob had to content himself with the humble role of a younger son,while big,indifferent Esau was known far and wide as one of the most important men of the country.
The story of the plot between Rebekah and her son Jacob,and how mother and son finally tried to cheat the elder brother out of his inheritance,all this does not make pleasant reading.As it had great influence (to bear)upon the rest of our chronicle,it must be told,although I would gladly spare you the details.
Esau,as we have just said,was a hunter and a farmer and a shepherd,who spent most of his time out in the open.He was easy-going,as such people are apt to be.Life to him was a simple affair of sunshine and wind and flocks of sheep—things that more or less took care of themselves.He was not interested in learned discussions.When he was hungry,he ate—when he was thirsty,he drank—when he was sleepy,he went to bed.
Why worry about anything else?
Jacob,on the other hand,sat for ever at home and brooded.He was greedy.He wanted things.How could he get hold of what really belonged to his elder brother?
One day his chance came.
Esau came home from a hunting trip.He was hungry as a wolf.Jacob was fussing around in the kitchen,making himself a fine stew of lentils.
“Let me have some,and let me have it right now,”Esau begged.
Jacob pretended not to hear him.
“I am starving,”Esau said;“give me a plate of your lentils.”
“What will you give me in return?”his brother asked.
“Anything,”Esau answered,for just then he wanted to eat,and he found it very difficult to think of two things at the same time.
“Will you give me all your rights as the eldest son?”
“Certainly.What good are they to me when I must sit here and die of starvation?Let me have a plate of your stew,and keep all the old rights.”
“You swear to it?”
“I will swear to anything!Give me some of those lentils.”
Unfortunately,the Jews of those early days were very formal.Other people might have thought that such talk between young men amounted to no more than a jest—a hungry fellow who promises everything he has for a square meal.
A promise,however,in Jacob's eyes,was a promise.
He told his mother of what had happened.Esau had voluntarily,and in consideration of a bowl of stew,surrendered his birthright.Now they must discover some way in which they could obtain Isaac's official consent,and then the contract would be formal.
The occasion offered itself very soon.