Apparently, that exchange had been enough to satisfy Ishmael’s need to shame Isaac—or perhaps Rebekah’s retorts had been bold enough to make him think twice before insulting her again. Whatever the cause, Ishmael became affable and stopped making barbed remarks. But the damage had been done. Isaac was enveloped in a cloud of deadly silence, and everyone knew he had been shamed, even if most of them weren’t quite sure how it had been done.

And there was more to come, though this time not directly from Ishmael’s mouth. With all of Keturah’s other sons, Isaac had performed the actual circumcision under Abraham’s direction, since the old man’s hand wasn’t steady enough to perform such a delicate operation safely. This time, however, Ishmael asked—publicly—for the privilege of circumcising his youngest half-brother. “It was at my birth,” said Ishmael, “that circumcision was first commanded as a mark of the covenant. And I’ve circumcised all my own sons, and all my servants, too—I’d like to think I have a deft hand with the sacred blade.”

Rebekah murmured to Isaac, “And to think that all these years you’ve been doing it with an ax.”

She didn’t know whether Ishmael heard her or not, but he turned to her and flashed her a huge grin. She regretted at once that she had not kept her sarcasm to herself. It only made Isaac look bad, to have someone murmuring snide remarks into his ear.

Worse, though, was the fact that Uncle Abraham had noticed her whispering, even though there was no possibility that he had heard her. “What did you say?” he demanded. “I didn’t hear you, Rebekah. What did you say?”

“I simply didn’t know,” said Rebekah, “that it was anything more complicated than a straight cut. Does Ishmael scallop the edges?”

Ishmael laughed heartily. “It’s not really the cutting,” he said. “It’s taking off as much as you can without removing anything that should be left attached.”

“It’s not a matter of skill,” said Abraham impatiently. “Isaac has circumcised five of my sons. Why not let Ishmael circumcise this one?”

Once Abraham had spoken, no one was interested in arguing the point. So it was Ishmael who stood before Abraham and made the baby give that little screech at the sudden discovery that really painful things could happen now that he was out of the womb—even with adults standing around watching.

Ishmael could not resist showing off a little. As Shuach cried lustily, Ishmael turned around, brandishing the knife, and asked innocently, “Anyone else?”

Rebekah laughed because it was genuinely funny, and yet was angry because this was a solemn occasion and not a time for jokes.