Marriage of Isaac and second Marriage of Abraham; the Birth of Esau and Jacob (xix. 10-14).

Marriage of Isaac and second Marriage of Abraham (cf. Gen. xxiv. 15, xxv. 1-4); the Birth of Esau and Jacob (cf. Gen. xxv. 19 ff.) (xix. 10-14).

10. And in the fourth year thereof he took a wife

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for his son Isaac and her name was Rebecca [the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, the brother of Abraham] ² the sister of Laban and daughter of Bethuel; and Bethuel was the son of Mêlcâ, who was the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. 11. And Abraham took to himself a third wife, and her name was Keturah, from among the daughters of his household servants, for Hagar had died before Sarah. ³ 12. And she bare him six sons, Zimram, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah, in the two weeks of years. 13. And in the sixth week,

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in the second year thereof, Rebecca bare to Isaac two sons, Jacob and Esau, and Jacob was a smooth and upright ⁴ man, and Esau was fierce, a man of the field, and hairy, and Jacob dwelt in tents. 14. And the youths grew, and Jacob learned to write; ⁵ but Esau did not learn, for he was a man of the field and a hunter, and he learnt war, and all his deeds were fierce.

Footnotes

113:1 A traditional title of Abraham. It goes back to Isa. xli. 8; cf. Jas. ii. 23, T.B. Men. 53b.

113:2 The bracketed words a dittograph.

113:3 This explains why Abraham did not take Hagar back. The later tradition (cf. e. g. Pirḳe de R. Eliezer xxx.) identifies Hagar with Keturah.

113:4 Cf. Gen. xxv. 27 (where "plain" = lit. "upright"), and Gen. xxvii. 11 (combined here).

113:5 According to the Targums the "tents" were academies. Jacob is represented as a lifelong student of the Torah (cf. Ber. rabba lxiii; Pirḳe de R. Eliezer xxxii.).