I am being asked to do no worse a thing than my mother was forced to do. No, a much easier thing, because I won’t be cut off from my sons, I can be right there with them. Only my stubbornness and selfishness, my irritation with Keturah, my resentment of Abraham’s treatment of my husband—only these low, petty human feelings kept me from peacefully accepting Uncle Abraham’s invitation and moving to Kirjath-arba to have my babies.

So by the time the babies were born, by the time she felt them shove their way out between her thighs with the lusty selfishness of infants, she had already reconciled herself to the will of God. Or maybe just the will of Abraham, but either way, she knew what she had to do.

“The first is covered all over with red hair!” cried Deborah during the birthing.

“And look,” said the midwife. “The second one’s hand came out gripping the heel of the first. You little usurper, what do you think, you can pull your brother back into the womb and come out first yourself?”

“Supplanter,” said Rebekah as she leaned back and gave the last push that sent her second child into the world. “I name him Jacob.”

“And the first?” asked the midwife.

“Red hair,” said Rebekah. “And the birthright is his. I name him Esau.”

“Name him what you will, you know they’ll end up calling him Edom,” said the midwife. It’s what redheads always ended up being called.

“What’s that to me?” said Rebekah. “I told you the names. Now go tell their father he has two sons. And eight days from now we’ll take them to Kirjath-arba.”

“Why?” asked Deborah.

“For the circumcision, of course,” said the midwife.

“No,” said Rebekah. “We’re going to live there now. So these boys can grow up in the household of Abraham.”

Part V

Blessings

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Keturah had arranged for two wetnurses to be sent to Lahai-roi so they could begin to suckle the babies as soon as they were born. But Rebekah refused to give them to someone else to be nursed. “I’ll do it myself,” she said.

“Two babies,” said the midwife. “You won’t have enough milk.”

“God gave me just enough breasts for the babies,” she said. “Or are you saying he can’t count?”

“What about your responsibility to produce more children for the young master? If you’re nursing, you won’t conceive a child for years.”

“He has two sons already,” said Rebekah. “He can wait a few years to see his first daughter.”

When the women finally allowed Isaac to come see her, he agreed with her. “Keep the children close. Since you’ve consented to move to Kirjath-arba, you won’t have any duties with the women, so why shouldn’t you suckle your own babies?”