The Sons of Isaac(72)

All this time Judith resented Rebekah’s efforts. “The child is mine and I should be able to do with it as I please,” she said with an angry toss of her head.

When the child finally died, Judith packed up her belongings, gathered her servants, and followed the midwives back to the city. Within a week she was back in the temple, refusing to see Esau or take any message sent from him.

It was not long until Bashemath disappeared, and when Esau went up to the city, he found that she had returned home. Her father, Elon, was embarrassed. “I can’t give you back the lambs, but I do have another daughter who will be glad to come in her place. Her name is Adah and she has envied her sister. She will make you a good wife.”

Esau shook his head. “This has been a painful experience. My mother is very upset and my father disappointed.”

“Come, see if you are not impressed. Adah is not beautiful but she will be cheerful and is sure to give you sons.”

They walked over to the edge of the parapet and looked down into the courtyard. They could see Adah and Bashemath baking bread. It was obvious that Adah was not beautiful but she moved quickly and only smiled when Bashemath snatched the first rounded loaf of bread and started to eat it instead of helping.

Esau liked what he saw. He wanted desperately to please his mother, and he could see that this girl would not be as offensive as either her sister or Judith. It also looked as though she knew how to bake bread and did it well. He was about to agree to the arrangement when Elon motioned him to come sit under the awning; he had something further to say.

When they were settled, Elon edged up on the subject cautiously. “My daughter Bashemath tells me that if the child recently born to Judith had been a boy, you would have had him cut. Is this true?”

It took Esau a few moments to understand and then he realized he was referring to their tradition of circumcising. “Yes,” he said. “It is a covenant with our God.”

Elon frowned and nervously pulled at a loose thread in the hem of his robe. “You know, this is not our custom and my daughter would be very disturbed to have this done to any child she might have. I will have to insist this not be done for any of the sons she might bear.”

Esau frowned. “Then it is impossible. This is important to my people.”

Elon coughed and adjusted his headpiece. “Well, well, I suppose Adah can get used to new ways. It just seems rather cruel to us.”

Esau was about to challenge him on the idea of cruelty. It had seemed very cruel that Judith refused to nurse her child and yet that was completely accepted. He was about to turn away when he realized that Elon now owed him a wife, and he didn’t want to go back home alone.

“I’ll have to have three more lambs for Adah,” Elon said, leaning back and studying Esau with half-closed eyes.

“I’m not about to pay three more lambs when she may very well run back home like her sister.”

“No, no, don’t be afraid,” Elon said. “I’ll tell her that if she tries to come home, I’ll beat her. She won’t come back. I can promise you that.”

With this promise Esau took Adah back with him to the camp. He saw that she was not beautiful and he did not feel any great attraction to her, but he was satisfied when at the end of a year she had borne him a son. She said nothing when he was circumcised, and she let Isaac give him the name of Reuel, meaning “God’s friend.”

Esau was still restless, and while Adah was pregnant, he had made friends with a man named Zibeon, a Hivite who also lived in Kirjath-arba. They went hunting together, and it came about quite naturally that eventually Zibeon urged Esau to marry his daughter Aholibamah. She was young and seemed to be attracted to Esau.

Esau had noticed how she leaned over the parapet to watch him when he sat with her father or hurried to open the door to the courtyard when she knew he was coming. She had large, dark eyes and a slow, seductive smile. It wasn’t long until Esau had cut a sharp bargain with her father and taken her home with him.

He had not realized that since she was of a Hivite background and tradition, she would be in constant conflict with Adah, whose family was Hittite. There was a steady round of bickering and hurt feelings, which only annoyed Esau. He would go off hunting and leave the problem for his mother to solve.

* * *

As time passed, things did not get better. Esau’s two wives were constantly fighting and their children were quarrelsome and ill-mannered. Rebekah was continually annoyed and irritated. The grandchildren she had hoped to enjoy were like a passel of wild cubs. They fought and screamed. Their little faces were always wet with sweat and streaked with dirt. They paid no attention to their mothers and hardly were aware of their grandmother. Only Esau could manage them, and this he did with a few good-natured cuffs to their ears.