Rebekah (Wives of the Patriarchs Book #2): A Novel by Jill Eileen Smith

Author:Jill Eileen Smith [Smith, Jill Eileen]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: FIC042030, Women in the Bible—Fiction, Christian fiction, FIC027050, Bible. O.T.—History of Biblical events—Fiction, Rebekah (Biblical matriarch)—Fiction, FIC042040
ISBN: 9781441240583
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2013-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

18

Deborah managed to avoid another confrontation with Rebekah the rest of the day, though she knew her mistress would not allow her to keep silent for long. The time had come to speak the truth, or at least what she would tell of it. She could not tell all. What mother would admit to such a thing when it could shame her only daughter?

She stiffened her back even as she stirred the stew for the evening meal, listening to the voices of women fussing at children and men laughing where they sat in groups around the fire.

Please, Adonai, let Rebekah’s tongue be quieted and her questions kept to herself.

She might be a servant, but she did not need to reveal everything just because her mistress wanted to know. Nuriah had not told Rebekah. Why should Deborah demean herself so?

She turned at the sound of rushing feet, startled by Selima as she came up beside her, breathing as though she had run halfway across the camp. She set the water jar in the dirt beside the fire and bent over, hands pressed to her knees to draw in air. “There you are, Ima.”

Deborah set the stirring stick aside and cupped her daughter’s shoulders. “Slow down, my daughter. Sit and drink.” She dipped a clay cup into the water and handed it to Selima. “Now tell your mother before you upset the whole camp.”

Selima straightened and glanced quickly over her shoulder. “Haviv is back, and he and Nadab . . .” She paused, placed a hand over her heart. “They are fighting over me!” She sighed as though this was the best thing in the world, but Deborah’s heart sank with the news.

“Fighting over you? Surely you are mistaken, my daughter.”

They had clearly waited too long to give Selima in marriage, and now her imagination was running away with her.

“I am telling you the truth, Ima! I heard them.”

“And just how did you overhear such a conversation? They did not throw fists at each other in front of you, did they?” She touched her chin and studied her daughter.

In her conversations with Lila, she knew the brothers did have their differences, but everyone knew it was Haviv whose heart was bound to Selima’s. Nadab could not possibly want her too, unless he should do so to spite his brother.

“I was hidden by the tree line, and they could not see me from their place at the crest of the hill. I went to draw water at the wadi when I heard them.”

“What did they say?” Deborah took the cup from Selima and refilled it. “Drink.”

Selima obeyed, and the two walked to a corner of the cooking tent where the women were few.

“Nadab had just returned the day before Haviv did.”

“Yes, yes, Rebekah told me that Isaac had sent them to check on different flocks and herds. In opposite directions.”

“Perhaps they were already at odds before they left?” Selima’s eyes grew wide, but her voice dropped to a whisper.

“They do not always get along.

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