Reading the Bible: Genesis, Chapter 5
Sarah dies.
--
Abraham searches for a burial place. Buys the famous cave and settles down in Hevron. This is the first half of this episode, but I didn't see anything weird.
Finding wife to Izhak (Issac)
Abraham sends a servant, Eliezer, on a mission to bring a wife to Itzhak. He promises freedom to the slave upon his return, whether or not he finds a wife.
He sets out on a long journey but was surprised to find the girl, Rivka, already on his first stop. She agrees to give him water, for him and all his camels. she washes his legs, etc.
After she was really nice to him, (some say she thought him to be handicapped since he asked her to pour the water directly into his mouth), he decides she is the one. He gives her gold bracelets and asks to see her parents.
The servant receives a warm welcome from Lavan, brother of Rivka, who will play an important role also in future tales. Lavan already heard from Rivka about the golden bracelets. He brings the Camels in and already set up a place in the house.
Eliezer explains to the family that his master, lord Avraham is a very wealthy man, and he leaves his wealth to his son Issac. He told them that he thinks Rivka is the one, since God told him that he will meet the chosen girl at the water well.
But he apologizes and says that Rivka must go to live in Issac house. So there are two ways to translate that apology. Either it might have been weird at that time to marry in such a distance, and perhaps the two families stayed closer to the new couple. Or that Eliezer just makes it easier for the decision making, since it is very common that the wife goes to live with the husband’s family location, rather than the other way.
The family asks Rivka if she is ready to go. And she agrees. Of course, she does, with all that money and gold…
My issue here is with the fact that the only thing Eliezer tells about the groom is that he is rich, and nothing more. at least the bible doesn't say anything in particular (like he is a nice person, or he comes from a kind family, or anything else…).
Short wedding
so after all agreements are made, the family asks Eliezer to stay a few more days, just in order for the family to say proper goodbyes to their daughter, give her blessings, etc. to my big surprise, he refuses and says they must leave immediately. this time with the family of the wife is a key tradition in all tribal cultures around the world, and you can find remnants of it even today in most of the cultures: Mongolian, Jewish, Hindu (and this is just what I am familiar with. but I' am sure others have it as well).
if Avraham or Itzhak were old or dying, I would understand that request, but both were still healthy and well.
anyway, they head out towards Itzhak. when they arrived at the camp, Eliezer tells Izhak about Rivka, and then Izhak takes her to “be his wife”, or in other words — they had sex…
no ceremony. no blessing from Avraham. nothing special is mentioned there.
BUT. there could be one explanation that I can think of, for ALL these points and question marks. perhaps, because of Sarah’s death, both Avraham and Izhak were still grieving. it is mentioned that “Itzhak was comforted by Rivka for the grief on his mother’s passing”. in Judaism, we are griefing for 1 year period on a close relative. during that time we do not join in for happy events out of respect for the dead. perhaps, the servant wanted to bring Rivka in order to ease the pain and passing of Sarah. perhaps this is why he was hasting to go back.
and perhaps it is simply because he wanted to go free, as he was promised…
Avraham’s third wife
after Izhak had a wife, and now he holds the property, now Avraham can rest. but then we have a short passage about a third wife Avraham takes who gives him another 5 children…
remember, he got Izhak when he was 100 years old. probably found a wife for him when Izhak was around 20. and now, 120–130 years old, and he has 5 more kids. WOW.
Death of Avraham
Avraham dies after 175 years. it is said that izhak as well as Ishmael were at the funeral and they buried him near Sarah at the cave. I would be very interested to know how exactly Ishmael was called to come to his father’s funeral, but the texts don't tell that story…
read bible episode in hebrew.
read previous episode
