Genesis xxv.
1 Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah.
2 And she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and
Ishbak, and Shuah.
5 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.
6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave
gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, unto
the east country.
7 And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which be
lived, a hundred and three score and fifteen years.
8 Then Abraham gave up the ghost.
9 And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the grave of Machpelah.
10 The field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth; there was
Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.
21 And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, and Rebekah his wife
conceived.
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled she bore twins. I
27 And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the
field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents.
28 And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison; but
Rebekah loved Jacob.
29 And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was
faint.
30 And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red
pottage, for I am faint; therefore was his name called Edom.
31 And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
32 And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit
shall this birthright do to me?
33 And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him; and he
sold his birthright unto Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat
and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his
birthright.
In these verses we have the account of Abraham's second marriage, and
the birth of several sons. It does not seem clear from the text whether
Keturah was a legal wife, or one of the Patriarch's numerous
concubines. Clarke inclines to the latter idea, on account of Abraham's
age, and then he gave all that be had to Isaac, and left Keturah's sons
to share with those of other concubines, to whom he gave gifts and sent
them away from his son Isaac to an eastern country. Abraham evidently
thought that the descendants of Isaac might be superior in moral
probity to those of his other sons, hence he desired to keep Isaac as
exclusive as possible. But Jacob and Esau did not fulfill the
Patriarch's expectations. Esau in selling his birthright for a mess of
pottage, and Jacob taking advantage of his brother in a weak moment,
and overreaching him in a bargain, alike illustrate the hereditary
qualities of their ancestors.
Genesis xxvi.
6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is
my sister; for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men
of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look
upon.
9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said Behold, or a surety she is thy
wife; and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him,
Because I said, Lest I die for her.
11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this
man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the
daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite;
35 Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
The account of the private family affairs of Isaac and Rebekah; their
partiality to different sons; Jacob, aided and abetted by his mother,
robbing his elder brother of both his birthright and his father's
blessing; the parents on one of their eventful journeys representing
themselves as brother and sister, instead of husband and wife, for fear
that some potentate might kill Isaac, in order to possess his beautiful
wife; all these petty deceptions handed down from generation to
generation, show that the law of heredity asserted itself even at that
early day.
Abraham through fear denied that Sarah was his wife, and Isaac does
the same thing. The grief of Isaac and Rebekah over Esau, was not that
he took two wives, but that they were Hittites. Chapter xxvii gives the
details of the manner that Jacob and his mother betrayed Isaac into
giving the blessing to Jacob intended for Esau. One must read the whole
story in order to appreciate the blind confidence Isaac placed in
Rebekah's integrity; the pathos of his situation; the bitter
disappointment of Esau; Jacob's temptation, and the supreme wickedness
of Rebekah in deceiving Isaac, defrauding Esau, and undermining the
moral sense of the son she loved.
Having entirely undermined his moral sense, Rebekah fears the
influence of Jacob's marriage with a daughter of the Hittites, and she
sends him to her own people, to find a wife in the household of her
uncle Laban. This is indeed a sad record of the cruel deception that
Jacob and his mother palmed off on Isaac and Esau. Both verbal and
practical lying were necessary to defraud the elder son, and Rebekah
was equal to the occasion. Neither she nor Jacob faltered in the hour
of peril. Altogether it is a pitiful tale of greed and deception.
Alas! where can a child look for lessons in truth, honor, and
generosity, when the mother they naturally trust, sets at defiance
every principle of justice and mercy to secure some worldly advantage.
Rebekah in her beautiful girlhood at the well drawing water for man and
beast, so full of compassion, does not exemplify the virtues we looked
for, in her mature womanhood. The conjugal and maternal relations so
far from expanding her most tender sentiments, making the heart from
love to, one grow bountiful to all, seem rather to have narrowed hers
into the extreme of individual selfishness. In obedience to his
mother's commands, Jacob starts on his journey to find a fitting wife.
If Sarah and Rebekah are the types of womanhood the Patriarchs admired,
Jacob need not have gone far to find their equal.
In woman's struggle for freedom during the last half century, men have
been continually pointing her to the women of the Bible for examples
worthy imitation, but we fail to see the merits of their character,
their position, the laws and sentiments concerning them. The only
significance of dwelling on these women and this period of woman's
history, is to show the absurd ity of pointing the women of the
nineteenth century to these as examples of virtue.
E. C. S.
Keturah is spoken of as a concubine in I Chronicles i, 32. As such she
held a recognized legal position which implied no disgrace in those
days of polygamy, only the children of these secondary wives were not
equal in inheritance. For this reason the sons of Keturah had to be
satisfied with gifts while Isaac received the patrimony. Notice the
charge of Abimelech to his people showing the high sense of honor in
this Philistine. He seems also in the 10th verse to have realized the
terrible guilt that it would have been if one of them had taken
Rebekah, not knowing she was Isaac's wife. With all Rebekah's faults
she seems to have had things her own way and therefore she did not set
any marked example of wifely submission for women of to-day to
follow. Her great error was deceiving her husband to carry her point
and this is always the result where woman is deprived in any degree of
personal freedom unless she has attained high moral development.
C. B. C.