Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MATRIARCHS

Symbolically considered the mothers of Israel, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel are the wives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, forebears of the 12 tribes of Israel. Their stories are beautifully narrated in high literary style and form a cohesive whole in the saga of the early patriarchal age.

Sarah

Sarah/Sarai and Abram/Abraham are bonded not only in spousal obligation, but in love and devotion to each other. Sarah is intricately tied to God’s repeated promises of progeny to Abraham, for she is to be the mother of nations (Gen. 17:16). At the juncture of the fulfillment of this promise, ritualized by the covenant of circumcision, their names are changed to Abraham, “father of a multitude” in Hebrew, and Sarah, “princess.”

Having left Ur and then Haran, the two continue on to Canaan. Twice dire circumstances force them to sojourn south, twice the beautiful Sarah is passed off as Abraham’s sister, twice she narrowly avoids violating the conjugal bond, and twice they are sent away with costly gifts and cattle.

Sarai, long barren, offers Abram her Egyptian maid Hagar so that she will obtain children through her. This seems a special variation of the recurrent theme of bitter rivalry between a barren favored wife and a fertile co-wife, or the story of a woman long barren who is given a divine promise of offspring and who then gives birth to a hero. It also mirrors the frequent malevolent sibling rivalry in the larger context of Genesis. God’s promise to Abraham finally culminates in Isaac’s birth when Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90.

Not much is told of Sarah after this event except that she dies at the age of 127 at Hebron, that Abraham mourns her and weeps for her, and that Isaac takes his new bride, Rebekah. The cave of Machpelah, purchased intentionally for Sarah’s burial (Gen. 23), is of obvious symbolic significance and represents their first permanent possession of land.

Rebekah

The story of Rebekah forms the conclusion of the Abraham saga, for Abraham’s last decision revolves around his wish that Isaac, the bearer of Yahweh’s promise, should not intermarry with the Canaanites. Abraham’s servant is sent to find a wife from the clan of Nahor, his brother, to ensure an endogamous marriage (Gen. 24). In later years, Rebekah will again be the focal point of purposeful activity in securing the paternal blessing for her favorite son Jacob when she devises the plan to fool Isaac and thereby invokes Isaac’s potential curse upon herself rather than allowing it to fall upon her son (Gen. 27).

Rebekah is the most clever and authoritative of the matriarchs, yet she epitomizes womanly beauty and virtue in her conduct, energetic speech, thoughtful courtesy, and self-assurance. The story assumes that Rebekah has been appointed by the Lord to be Isaac’s wife, since events seemingly unfold according to divine providence. Her farewell from her father’s house is accompanied by a shower of blessings, doubling the intentional fertility motif of the life-giving water at the well.

The theme of barrenness recurs in the story of Rebekah, for she does not conceive until after 20 years of marriage. Yahweh indicates special, yet deliberately ambiguous, intention in explaining the destiny of the two boys (nations, people) who struggle within her womb (Gen. 25:23). There is a schematic repetition in Rebekah’s charge to Jacob to seek a wife from among her own clan; he later finds comfort with Rachel, just as Isaac had found comfort with Rebekah.

Leah and Rachel

The stories of Leah, Rachel, and their offspring are intertwined in competition and strife, echoing nuances of the struggle between Jacob and Esau. They are the daughters of the crafty Laban, though they will prove to be well matched with the even craftier Jacob in repetitive motifs of deception.

Jacob’s journey to Haran has attributes of divine intent and promise, expressed already in the dream vision at Bethel (Gen. 28:14). Rachel then appears to Jacob at the well, and here begins Jacob’s personal story of deep emotional attachment and love for her. The symbolic action of Jacob rolling away the stone at the well is thematically indicative of the numerous obstacles he must later overcome to obtain Rachel: seven years of servitude to Laban, culminating in the substitution of Leah as first wife, and seven further years of labor for Rachel.

Leah bears four sons in succession, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, named to symbolize her yearnings for love and comfort, while Rachel remains barren. Rachel offers Jacob her maid Bilhah, who, as surrogate mother, bears Dan, then Naphtali, named to express Rachel’s wrestling with her sister. Only after Leah’s maid Zilpah has borne Gad and Asher and Leah has borne Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah does God remember and bless Rachel. She bears Joseph, asking for another son in his naming.

Rachel dies on the journey back to Canaan after giving birth to her second son, Benoni (“son of my sorrow”), whom Jacob renames Benjamin. The favorite status of Rachel and envy of Jacob’s special love for her are passed down to the children and become evident in their interactions with each other. Just as Jacob singles out Rachel for a special love in life, so he singles her out in death in placing a commemorative pillar on her grave to mark her tomb.

There is a thematic rhythm in the biblical narrative of the four matriarchs, emphasizing their place as divinely ordained. This in turn is reflected in the primary position they hold among Israelite ancestry. They are linked in a causal chain, a series of events firmly connected one to another, and together with the patriarchs they form the primal ancestral pattern. All four together hold the revered place as mothers of the nation.

Bibliography. R. Alter, The Art of Biblical Narrative (New York, 1981); A. B. Beck, “Rachel,” in ABD 5:605-8; “Rebekah,” in ABD 5:629-30; E. Deen, All of the Women of the Bible (New York, 1983); E. A. Speiser, Genesis. AB 1 (Garden City, 1964).

Astrid B. Beck

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MATRIARCHS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)