We started last week with a walk through the Old Testament collecting the female names that appear in the Bible and we will continue with it, because, without a doubt, these beautiful and sonorous names can help families who are looking for a name for a daughter that is yet to be born.
Rebeca
We left Isaac beginning his adult life and, of course, it was time for him to get married. His father thought that the right wife should not come from the area where they were living, but from his own family, as was the tradition.
So he spoke to his trusted servant, prepared him with valuable gifts and a few camels, and was sent by Haran, the land where his brother Nahor lived, who had not traveled with him and Job.
Nahor had married his niece Melcha (which means “Queen”) and was the grandfather of Laban and Rebekah, the girl who is destined to marry Isaac. The meaning of the name Rebeca seems to come from the Hebrew ” RIBQAH ” (from the verb “to tie”) and is given the meaning of “the one who creates ties”, “the one who ties”.
The servant was afraid of how the negotiations would go but God reassured him by telling him that a girl would offer him water and would be the one. When he arrived in Haran, he met a group of maidens who collected and carried water in their jugs to take it to the town. He approached them and asked for a drink. One, very pretty, offered him water for himself and also for the camels, with a generous gesture that made it pleasant in the eyes of the servant and he quickly asked.
Upon discovering that he was from his master’s family, he gave her valuable gifts and she took him to the family home, where a marriage agreement was soon reached and Rebeca left with the servant. As soon as she met her fiance, love arose between them.
Rebecca turned out to be a good wife, but, to the grief of the husbands, she was unable to conceive a child. However, in the end, when they had been married for 20 years, she became pregnant.
Already in the womb the problems began between her children, who fought inside her giving her a lot of discomfort. When they were born, it was first done by a stout, blond boy, Esau. And then the younger twin, Jacob.
Esau grew strong, vigorous, hairy, he loved hunting and had a warlike character. His father adored him. Jacob, on the other hand, was quieter but highly intelligent and hung out with the women in the shops and cultivated. His mother had a soft spot for him.
Jabob deceived his brother, exchanging his birthright and his rights for a stew of lentils, one day when the eldest arrived fainting from the hunt. It seems that this would not sit very well with Esau, but there was no great confrontation.
As the boys grew up, Esau, wayward, chose a pair of wives from among the inhabitants of the nearby cities, and they did nothing but upset his parents, who were already elderly.
The situation became increasingly tense, and Rebeca hatched a plan to get her favorite son favored. Isaac was an old man and was resting in his bed, and had lost his sight, so Rebekah encouraged Jacob to deceive him and obtain the paternal blessing that would confer ultimate power and authority over the entire tribe and its descendants.
Rebekah heard that Isaac sent Esau to hunt to make him a good stew, but, while the son was hunting, she had some goats killed, prepared the food and made Jacob present it to his father, covering his arms with the skins of the animals. so that the old man would mistake him for Esau, who was very hairy.
Receiving the blessing by Jacob, Esau, aware, flew into a rage and vowed to kill his brother if he found him. The concerned parents sent him away and there was no better place than the home of the relatives from whom Rebeca came. By the way, Jacob was commissioned to return conveniently married to a woman of his kindred.
Rebekah is the one who binds, who has tied her with a sweet bond the destiny of the Hebrew people and from her all the tribes of Israel will descend. As a wife and mother, she had her flaws, but she was undoubtedly generous and intelligent. She is not a submissive woman but takes the reins when she believes it is necessary for the good of her family.
We stay in it. In the next topic we will talk about his nieces and daughters-in-law, the wives and concubines that Jacob will finally bring when he returns from the eventful journey that Rebekah has sent him on.
In Babies and more | Female baby names: Old Testament characters (I), Baby names: mythological heroines (I), (II), ( III ) Baby names: names of heroes from Greek mythology (I), (II), Names Female Baby Names – Egyptian Goddesses and Queens, Male Baby Names – Egyptian Gods and Pharaohs, Female Baby Names – Egyptian Origin, Male Baby Names – Egyptian Origin, Baby Names – Bible Characters
