(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“This is the history of the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian, to be his wife. Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.”
(Genesis 25:19-21)
Now we see Isaac’s side. First of all, although in the narrative we have buried Abraham, the fact is that he was alive for a long time. He was 140 years old when Isaac and Rebekah got married. He was 160 years old when the twins were born. When Abraham did die, Esau and Jacob were fifteen years old (15). Abraham was around for a lot of the beginning of the story. He was able to see Ishmael have children and Isaac as well. He was granted to see the beginning of the promise of God that he would father nations.
Isaac and Rebekah were childless for twenty years. That would have been hard, but they had Abraham there to talk to. He and Sarah had been childless for a LOT longer. Abraham could have comforted them with God’s promise of many offspring. It was a chance for them to trust God in spite of what they were seeing around them (something Abraham had become an expert in). It was a chance to get closer to God and forge a relationship of reliance on Him. But it would have been a hard thing to hold onto.
It hit Rebekah particularly hard because Isaac entreated God on her behalf. Which means he knew how much it meant to her. Which means she must have shared something of her feelings with him. Their relationship was not marked by intimate communication. Many of the problems they later had came down to no communication. But at least in this instance, she was open enough that he could see her desire and her pain. To their credit, they kept focusing on God to satisfy their desires. They didn’t look for answers elsewhere, they cried out to God alone.
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘Abraham begot Isaac. The last mention of Isaac highlighted his bond with his mother (24:67), yet the formulaic genealogical note here does not reflect Sarah’s importance in Isaac’s life. he took as his wife Rebekah daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. Rebekah has been identified several times in Genesis 24. By adding place names, her personal lineage emphasizes that she is now far from home. Absent from this list is Milcah, Rebekah’s grandmother, whom Rebekah herself mentions when she first identifies herself (24:24; see also 24:15). Isaac pleaded. We do not learn about Rebekah’s feelings concerning her childlessness, nor are we told that she does anything to try to change the situation. Isaac could have taken other wives to solve the problem of continuity (see at “childless,” below), but he apparently does not. Isaac’s sensitivity to Rebekah stands out in contrast to Jacob, who chastises his barren wife Rachel when she asks for children (30:2). on behalf of his wife. Literally, “in front of his wife,” implying that Rebekah is present. Why does she not pray herself? Hannah is the exemplar of a woman who prays to have a child (I Samuel 1). childless. Heb. akarah, the same word translated as “barren” in describing Sarah’s condition (11:30) and Rachel’s (29:31). In contrast to stories about these other matriarchs or Hannah, we are not told that Rebekah resorts to “extreme measures” to ensure fertility. Ancient Near Eastern documents describe adoption as one of the strategies for handling the social and economic problems resulting from lack of progeny. Another potential solution is reflected in Genesis 16, where Sarah gives Abraham her handmaid Hagar in order to produce an offspring. Elsewhere in the Bible, women resort to prayer (Hannah in I Samuel 1) or a presumed fertility plant (see Rachel bargaining with Leah for mandrakes in Genesis 30:14). For more on barrenness, see Noach, Another View.’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 19. When we consider how exactly the descent, relationship and origin of Rebecca is repeated in the next verse, the repetition of the short notice: אברהם הוליד את יצחק need not surprise us. This difference in the lineage of the two parents can account for, be the deep-lying cause of, all that follows. V. 20. Not for nothing are we told that Isaac was already forty years old when he married Rebecca. Much as it was Abraham’s dearest wish and anxious worry that Isaac should get the right wife, he still waited till he was forty years old, although, at his advanced age, he could not know how much longer he would live. But just this delay would have arisen from the same cause. Isaac’s character was first to reach full virile independence and maturity, so that he could be, not only materially, but also spiritually the whole support of his wife. Hence also the extremely young age which tradition ascribes to Rebecca (which would also be indicated above by the spelling of נַעַרָ (חסר), although indeed as אילונית she could still have been older) so that, under the powerful influence of the Abrahamitic spirit, she would, all the more, be likely to become a second Sarah. We have already seen the striking difference between Rebecca and her surroundings. Neverthless the text reminds us again of her Aramic descent and family. Even if Isaac was Abraham’s son, and though Abraham, and Abraham alone, had influenced him, and although he had matured to a real son of Abraham, Rebecca was still, in spite of her undeniable good qualities, the daughter of an Aramite, born and brought up in Aram, and the sister of the most pronounced Aramite, Laban. If, according to the experience of our sages, most boys take after their maternal uncles — רב בנים הולכים אחר אחי האם — what children could be expected to come from this marriage, if most of them would become replicas of their uncle Laban! Thus we are prepared beforehand for the discord which arose later on, we can not be surprised that an Esau also appears, can only wonder at finding Jacob next to him. לנכח אשתו. Twenty long years had Isaac struggled in prayer before God for the fulfilment of the wish to have children from Rebecca. The promise כי ביצחק יקרא לך זרע was known to him, so he knew that, in any case, he could hope to have children. But whether the Covenant of Abraham would be carried on by one born from a sister of Laban, in spite of her own excellency, on that, especially after waiting so long, he could well begin to have doubts. So that his prayer was לנכח אשתו, specially referring to Rebecca. — We see here how, not only the first stone, but the further building up of the House of Israel had to come only as a direct gift from the Almightiness of God. Like Sarah, Rebecca too was עקרה, barren.’
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