The Sons of Isaac (31 page)

Jacob reached for the small, jeweled hand and slowly began to remove the ornate rings. “There,” he said when they were lying in a pile beside her, “it’s you I have loved from the moment I first saw you. Whether you are dressed in worn homespun wool out with your sheep or in the elegance befitting a princess makes no difference.”

“Are you angry that you have already worked seven years for me and now have to work seven more?” She was serious now. Her eyes studied his face to catch any hint of unhappiness.

Jacob took both her hands in his and smiled. “I am a man who knows real value, and I assure you that I am the one who has won the prize in this bargain.”

*  *  *

The next afternoon Jacob called his second servant to him. “Go back to my family in Beersheba and tell my parents I must work seven more years. Tell my mother she was right about her brother, but in this bargain I have won. He has given me both Leah and Rachel, and with Rachel I will be unbelievably happy.”

R
ebekah was delighted when the first seven years were up and she knew Jacob would at last be coming home. She had been terribly upset that her brother had made him work seven years to pay for his daughter. She was glad she had warned Jacob to watch out for her brother’s greed and craftiness. She should have known that going to get a bride without the bridal price gave Laban too tempting an opportunity to cut a sharp bargain.

She blamed herself for his having to leave home so quickly and going so unprepared. He should have gone to her brother loaded with gifts, but there had been no time. Esau was probably still angry. She would have to test the situation carefully, even now, to be sure Esau would not harm Jacob.

The opportunity came the next evening when she saw Esau near the tents. “Your brother will be home soon,” she told him.

Esau’s body tensed and his face clouded. “What does he want from us?”

“He doesn’t want anything,” she said. “He’s just soon to be married. The seven years are up and he’ll be coming home with his bride.”

“I suppose he’s expecting to benefit from all my hard work.”

“I don’t understand.”

“He’s been gone seven years,” he said, “while I’ve been here tending the sheep and building up a big flock.”

“And you think he’ll come and claim the two-thirds as his birthright.”

“Of course, I can see it all now. It’s just like him to come and reap the benefit while I’ve had to do the work.” He paced angrily back and forth, then with a great curse strode out of the tent. Once outside, he turned abruptly, and clutching the tent flap, leaned in to confront his mother. His face was red and distorted with hatred. “I said I’d kill him before and my threat still stands,” he said, biting off the words in sharp, forceful thrusts.

With that he was gone, leaving Rebekah in tears. “My poor, poor boys,” she cried. “Esau’s whole life is colored by this anger. He hates me as much as he hates his brother. And Jacob, what will become of him, armed only with his wits and muscle to get a bride?”

As she sat alone in her tent trying to face the ugly facts and find a way to welcome Jacob in spite of Esau’s threat, Deborah arrived. “Rebekah,” she said. “There’s bad news from Haran.”

“Not more bad news.” Rebekah’s hand went to her trembling lips. “I can’t imagine more bad news than I have already received, but tell me. What’s happened?”

“There’s a caravan that’s just arrived.”

“Is Jacob on his way home as he told us?”

“No, there’s been a second caravan with more recent news from Jacob.”

“Oh, pray God he’s not dead.”

“No, no,” Deborah said. “He’s not dead, but neither can he come home.”

It took awhile for Rebekah to understand all that the young messenger had to say. When she finally understood that her brother had actually tricked Jacob into marrying his elder daughter and only agreed for him to marry the younger after Jacob had promised to work seven more years, she burst into hysterics. “When will we ever be through with cheating and tricks, cruel tricks?” she said at last.

It was far into the night before she realized that all was not lost. Things had evened out. This was not the time for Jacob to come home when he would have to face Esau’s anger and hatred. “But seven years,” she kept saying. “Even in seven years, will Esau be ready to accept his brother?”

“We won’t know until the time is up,” Deborah said.

“Then it’ll be fourteen years since I last saw my favorite son,” Rebekah said. “He’ll have children I’ve not seen and wives I won’t know. Isaac may not even be alive in seven years.”

“But,” Deborah said, “he’s at last married to the one he loves and she is of your own family. One must be thankful for whatever good one can find.”

Rebekah choked back the tears. “You’re right. Jacob’s still alive and Esau has not been guilty of murder.”

*  *  *

In Haran things were not going well with Jacob’s wives. Despite the fact that Jacob, by custom, had to spend equal time with each wife, he could not bring himself to spend the required time with Leah. She was so eager to please him and wept so bitterly whenever she realized he preferred to be with Rachel. He tried to tell her that he couldn’t help loving Rachel. He didn’t intend any slight to her, but she wept all the more.

No matter how often he tried to explain that her sulking and demanding attention only made matters worse, she could not change. “You have to love me; I’m your wife and I love you.”

Finally he confronted her with her part in the deception. “You knew I loved Rachel and you went along with your father to trick me. How can you expect me to love you?”

“I didn’t really understand …” she started to explain.

“When in the night I called you Rachel, you didn’t correct me,” he argued.

“But I did it because I loved you. I love you more than Rachel does. I am always thinking of things to please you. How can you not love me?”

Then there was the matter of the children. Right away Leah became pregnant and produced a son she named Reuben, meaning “God has noticed my trouble.”

“Don’t bring God into this,” Jacob roared in real frustration. He resented the fact that she didn’t follow the custom of letting the father name the son. She was too intent on making a point she could constantly dangle before his face.

When she saw that this got his attention, she could not resist naming her next son Simeon, meaning “God heard.”

Again Jacob complained. “Why have you not waited for me to name my son?” he demanded.

“You were too busy. You didn’t come until after he was rubbed with salt water and wrapped in his swaddling clothes, so I named him.”

“And what are you trying to tell me by this name?”

“It’s quite simple. It seems that even your God has heard that I am unloved and has given me another son.”

*  *  *

Now it became a source of great irritation to Rachel that Leah should get pregnant so easily while she herself had no children. To make matters worse, Leah had started to provoke her sister with snide remarks. “Jacob loves me the best,” she would say. “I wouldn’t be having all these children if it weren’t true.” Then just to torment her sister, she named her next son Levi, meaning “attachment.” “It’s children that bind a man to a woman,” she said with a bitter twist to her mouth.

This sounded logical to Rachel. Surely if Jacob loved her as he said, he would also give her the children she wanted so badly. “Give me children or I’ll die,” she began to plead.

Jacob felt so trapped and frustrated that he finally lashed out. “Am I God?” he roared. “It’s Elohim who gives children. He’s the one responsible for your problem.”

Leah, of course, heard of the encounter and rejoiced. Now she felt that she was surely triumphing over her sister. This certainly meant that she had found favor with the God of Jacob. To her great delight, she again became pregnant and this time she called the little boy Judah, meaning “praise.” She had now attained a new status. She was the mother of four sons, and more than that, it was obvious she had found favor with Jacob’s God.

When the sisters married, Laban had given each of them a serving girl. To Leah he had given Zilpah and to Rachel, Bilhah. Now in desperation Rachel begged Jacob to sleep with her serving girl. “Bilhah will give me any child that is born,” she told Jacob. When he saw how eager she was, he reluctantly agreed.

To Rachel’s delight the girl became pregnant two times and both times produced sons.

When the first little boy was placed in her arms, Rachel wept for joy. “I’m going to name him Dan,” she said. When Jacob asked what the name meant to her, she said, “Dan means justice. God has heard my plea for a son and at last He has given me justice.”

The second son born to her, through Bilhah, she named Naphtali, or wrestling. When asked why she named him this, she quickly answered, “I am in a fierce contest with my sister and I am winning.”

Jacob felt that with these two births the conflict would be finally settled. Leah had four sons and now Rachel had two that she had adopted as her own. He was content when Leah no longer became pregnant.

It was well into the tenth year of Jacob’s work to pay for Rachel that he decided to move. There were too many children to fit comfortably into Laban’s house. There was too much noise and confusion. Laban himself facilitated the move by giving him a house nearby that had belonged to Nazzim.

It had been a long time since anyone had lived there, and though it was of sturdy stone, built around a generous courtyard, it was badly in need of repair. The beams of the roof were still strong but the reed mats, thorny wood covering, and clay mortar had all given way during the rainy seasons. The roof would have to be completely redone.

Inside, the rooms were knee-deep in debris that had fallen from the roof. There were cobwebs and field mice, and the courtyard was cluttered with odd bits of broken yokes, plows, bows, and several clay ovens that were cracked and useless. Since it was Leah who had the children who needed more space, and since she was the one who wanted everything clean and orderly, it became her lot to see that the house was made livable.

Leah and her children were to have the two rooms on the left of the courtyard and Rachel, though she had only the two sons by Bilhah, insisted on the same number of rooms on the right. In the middle was a long room that was used for any formal entertaining and sometimes eating when it was raining outside. Most of the time everyone would spend their days outside in the courtyard or on the roof, where Leah planned to keep her loom.

When the roof was finished, Jacob chose to have a room built for himself up there, where he could have peace and quiet. From time to time, he would call one of the women to join him or entertain his close friends, leaving the rest of the house to his wives and children. “Men don’t need to be bothered with the children and the household activities” was the thinking of most people in Haran.

*  *  *

In the new house things went along much as usual, except that Leah found that she was no longer able to get pregnant. In the midst of great frustration, she determined to do as her sister had done and give her maid, Zilpah, to Jacob. Zilpah readily agreed and it was not long before she was pregnant. When Leah heard the news, she was delirious with joy. She insisted that Zilpah be given the freshest fruit, the choice bits of meat, and be relieved of all work. “It’s important that you have a son,” she said. “Even my sister, Rachel, is taunting me.”

“Taunting you?” Zilpah asked.

“Yes, she says my lucky days are over. I’ll have no more children. I must prove her wrong.”

Zilpah didn’t take her seriously, but when the child was born, she understood. Leah named him Gad, meaning “my luck has turned.” When Jacob heard of the turn his wives’ rivalry had taken, he was in despair.

It seemed to him that one could not put a foot down anyplace inside the courtyard without stumbling over a child. He had not imagined that he, coming from a family of few children, could possibly produce so many children. After years of earnest prayer, his grandfather Abraham had only been able to have Isaac with Sarah. His own father had produced only twins. He was not prepared for this blossoming. He remembered Elohim’s promise to his grandfather that his seed would be as the sand or as the stars, and he began to fear that he alone was about to fulfill that prophecy.

He could not understand Leah’s obsession. She never stopped planning how she could get more children. “Sleep with Zilpah again,” she urged Jacob. “Let’s see if my luck has truly taken a turn for the better.”

Jacob found Zilpah a pleasant change from Leah. She was young and eager to please. Most of all she was quiet and never came with some hidden motive. So it was easy for him to let Zilpah take Leah’s turn. To his surprise once again she became pregnant. Leah was overjoyed. She named the child Asher, meaning “happy.” “What amazing luck is mine,” she said. “How the other women will envy me. I am truly happy.”

Now there was constant tension intensified by Rachel’s decision to make their courtyard more attractive. “I want it to be both pleasant and restful,” she said.

For a whole month she worked planting herbs and flowers in the narrow plot against the far wall. She brought in servants to chop up the hard-packed earth and dig pits for a grapevine and finally a fig tree. Last of all she bought reed cages for pigeons and small songbirds. It took time and a great deal of work, but it totally transformed the humble courtyard.