Read Rebekah: Women of Genesis for Free Online Page A

of husbands would not be Rebekah’s. Father would not force her to marry someone awful, but he would choose carefully for her, and whatever man he chose, that would be her husband for life. If she were ugly, then it would be ordinary men who sought her, men that she could easily persuade Father to turn away until one came who was decent and good that she could love. But being beautiful and the daughter of a prominent household meant that men of wealth and power would also be attracted to her, and Father would be tempted by the bridegifts they might offer, by the possibility of connection to a great house. He would not force her even so, but it would be harder to persuade him if he liked a man that she could not bring herself to love. It would hurt him, anger him, and Rebekah hated even to imagine such a thing. She had spent her life trying to keep her father happy. Whatever beauty she had would fight against her now, unless by some miracle the first great man who came to court her was also a man that she could love.
     
    Not likely. She had seen plenty of rich and powerful men, and almost all of them were ugly of soul, greedy and grasping, bossy and mean-spirited. They smiled at Father because he was rich and powerful, but to their servants they were curt or surly or brutal, demanding always and praising never. Rebekah knew the truth—that as a man treated his servants, so would he treat his wives. Married to such a man as that, she might please him at first but soon he would grow tired of her, irritated at her ways, because such men were never pleased for long. She had seen the wives of men like that, shadowy women who lived in the small circle of their children and womenservants, finding such happiness as they could but always under the cloud of their husband’s disdain or even, now and then, outright hatred.
     
    Father would never choose such a thing for me. But he would choose a man who seems to be cheerful and happy, and that is the face that all men show to him, so how can he know the truth? How can he understand what marriage to one of his friends would be like for a girl like me?
     
    “Rebekah,” said Deborah. “You should pray to God to make you ugly.”
     
    Rebekah laughed. “God doesn’t grant prayers like that.”
     
    “Yes he does!” said Deborah. “Father said that God made me ugly.”
     
    “You are not ugly, you silly goof. You’re beautiful.”
     
    Deborah pursed her lips. “Everybody but you says I’m ugly, so who’s the silly goof?”
     
    Rebekah sat up and hugged Deborah tightly. “ They are, anyone who would say that,” she said.
     
    “Are you happy now?” asked Deborah.
     
    “Yes, I am. I’m happy.”
     
    “Happy as can be?” Deborah could never be happy until she knew she had cheered Rebekah up.
     
    “Happy as can be.” Rebekah showed her a big toothy grin—the grin that had always been the end of this childhood game.
     
    “I’m so glad you’re my little girl,” said Deborah. “They would never have let me keep my little boy even if he hadn’t died. So I’m glad they gave me you to nurse instead.”
     
    Rebekah had a sickening thought. When her mother died, and Rebekah needed a wetnurse to feed her as an infant, had they taken Deborah’s baby away from her so that Rebekah could have the infant boy’s place at Deborah’s breast? Or was it simply a coincidence that Deborah’s baby had died just when Rebekah needed a nurse?
     
    If they took Deborah’s little boy, was he still alive, perhaps? Or had they . . . could they possibly have . . . killed him?
     
    No, no, they served God, all the descendants of Terah, and that meant that they did not sacrifice human beings and regarded all children’s lives as sacred, even those born in bastardy. Those who served God did not take the lives of the innocent, certainly not for the mere convenience of the baby daughter of a powerful man.
     
    Deborah’s baby must have died, that’s all. Perhaps God in his mercy