(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)
“Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?” ”
(Genesis 27:46)
Rebekah was lying. Again. This time directly, instead of directing Jacob. It is true that both she and Isaac weren’t happy when Esau took wives from among the nations in the Land (Genesis 26:34–35). She may have desired better for her favoured son. But this whole thing was a ruse to get Jacob away from Esau and his anger. She was not honest about her whole motivations. She did not fess up about her part in the deception with the blessing. She was continuing this pattern that she had trapped herself in, and it was going to cost her. She was not being open and honest. She was going to harvest the wrong seed.
The sage Chizkuni writes: ‘אם לוקח יעקב אשה מבנות חת, “if Yaakov were to take a wife from amongst the Hittites;” She said this only in order to insure that Yaakov would be physically out of reach to Esau. [She could not imagine that Yaakov actually would do such a thing. Ed.] She wanted Yitzchok to specifically warn Yaakov not to marry a Hittite woman. She was afraid that unless specifically instructed, he would not want to leave his home and appear like a fugitive. He might instead marry someone from a powerful family and take his chances that they would protect him against his brother.’
The sage Or HaChaim writes: ‘קצתי בחיי. “I am fed up with my life.” She did not want to reveal the true reason for her state of mind because it is forbidden to tell tales. This is why she gave Isaac a different reason for wanting Jacob sent away. When she had revealed Esau’s intention to Jacob this was not tale-bearing but was fulfilment of the commandment in the second half of the verse dealing with tale bearing, “do not stand idly by when the blood of your fellow man is being shed” (Leviticus 19,16).’
The Torah: A Women’s Commentary writes: ‘Rebekah addresses her words to Isaac, providing a reason to for him to send Jacob away. This way, Jacob is able to leave with Isaac’s blessing and permission. Once again, Rebekah has created a situation in which it seems that Isaac is in control, while she pulls the strings. She has done what had to be done, but now her beloved Jacob will be gone.’
The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 46 Had Rebecca been an ordinary woman how she would have loved to disclose Esau’s murderous thoughts to show him how right she had been all along. Esau contemplating becoming a second Cain, etc. etc. But this “I told you so”, she does not say, prefers to make the reason for Jacob’s journey to Paddan-aram to be quite a natural and reasonable one — כאלה as we have unfortunately already got to know the two daughters-in-law. מבנות הארץ of whom God had said לא שלם עון האמורי עד הנה.’
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