Isaac and Jacob and Their

ISAAC AND JACOB AND THEIR WIVES

In the King James Version of the Holy Bible, specifically in the Book of Genesis, the story of Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham, focuses on his relationship with Rebekah who was called from Haran to become his wife in marriage. In Genesis 24:62-67, we are told that Rebekah, after being approached by a servant to Abraham, "rode upon the camels and followed the man, and the servant took Rebekah and went his way. And Isaac came from the way of the well, for he dwelt in the south country." Later on, Isaac brought Rebekah "into his mother Sarah's tent and took Rebekah and she became his wife." Obviously, this account of how Abraham's servant found Rebekah for Isaac strongly emphasizes the guidance and overruling providence of God in the life of Isaac and his family. Also, water itself is equated with Jehovah as the source of "living water" and indicates spiritual purification, meaning that Rebekah was pure and a virgin before she married Isaac. Likewise, Jacob, the father of the Twelve Tribes of ancient Israel and the twin brother of Esau (his mother was Rebekah, the wife of Isaac), fled from the anger of Esau with the intention of finding a wife from the same clan as his mother. At Haran, the same locale where Isaac met Rebekah, Jacob was met by his cousin Rachel ("And Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth," Genesis 29:10) and was taken back to his uncle Laban with whom Isaac agreed to work for seven years in order to take Rachel as his wife. As mentioned above concerning how Isaac met Rebekah, the location of Jacob's first meeting with Rachel is indicative of the religious significance of water, whether used for drinking, watering cattle and sheep or for ritual cleansing according to ancient Jewish practices. Certainly, both of these encounters are symbolic of Isaac and Jacob's spiritual longings and needs to be blessed by Jehovah; thus, water figures prominently in these stories and many others in the Old Testament.