Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Christine Bass" <christinebass AT home.com>]

Did Isaac marry Rebekah when she was three years old? In reading the account
in Genesis 22 through 24 she is described as a fair damsel, a virgin who was
out drawing water for some ten camels and who went into Sarah's tent with
Isaac and comforted him not long afterwards. That Abraham's servant would
select a three year old bride for 40 year old Isaac does not seem to be how
this
text reads. Am I missing something?

Thanks for any insights on this.
Christine Bass

(The interpretation I am inquring about is below.)

**************************
Someone asked how it is derived that Yitzchak married Rivkah when she was
three years old?

Here is how Rashi derives the chronology, on the verse Genesis 25:20 at the
beginning of Parashat Toldoth.

CHUMASH:
And Yitzchak was forty years old when he married Rivkah, the daughter of
Bethuel the Aramean of Padan-Aram, the sister of Laban.

Rashi:
FORTY YEARS OLD
For when Abraham came back from Morah after the Akedah, he was informed of
the birth of Rivkah (Genesis 22:23, at the end of Parashat Vayera), and
Yitzchak was thirty-seven years old at that time, for it was at the time of
the Akedah that Sarah died. And from the time Isaac was born, until the
Akedah, there were 37 years, since Sarah was 90 at the time she gave birth
to Yitzchak, and 127 when she died, as it says, "This is the life of Sarah,"
etc. (Genesis 23:1). See, now Yitzchak was 37 years old when Sarah died, and
it was at that time Rivkah was born. He waited three years and then married
her.



What you're saying is that the description of Rivka seems to you to be
beyond the capabilities of a normal three year old. Let me remind you that
Rivka was not a normal three year old, she was one of the great Matriarchs,
and therefore was a very extraordinary, remarkable person.

Even recent history gives us examples of child prodigies who perform far
beyond what is considered normal development for their age. It is hard to
imagine, listening to the symphonies of Mozart, that some of that music was
composed when he was only four and five years old.

You also have to consider that Rivka was not only extraordinarily advanced
for a girl of her age, but her conduct was so remarkable that to Eliezer it
was a clear sign that she was chosen by G-d.