Genesis 27:45

Hebrew Bible

44 Live with him for a little while until your brother’s rage subsides. 45 Stay there until your brother’s anger against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I’ll send someone to bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day? 46 Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am deeply depressed because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob were to marry one of these daughters of Heth who live in this land, I would want to die!”

2 Samuel 14:7

Hebrew Bible

4 So the Tekoan woman went to the king. She bowed down with her face to the ground in deference to him and said, “Please help me, O king!” 5 The king replied to her, “What do you want?” She answered, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6 Your servant has two sons. When the two of them got into a fight in the field, there was no one present who could intervene. One of them struck the other and killed him. 7 Now the entire family has risen up against your servant, saying, ‘Turn over the one who struck down his brother, so that we can execute him and avenge the death of his brother whom he killed. In so doing we will also destroy the heir.’ They want to extinguish my remaining coal, leaving no one on the face of the earth to carry on the name of my husband.”

 Notes and References

"... Note also another thematic connection within these stories. After Jacob acquires the blessing that was meant for Esau, Esau threatens to kill him. Their mother, Rebekah, therefore sends Jacob away because, she says, “Why should I be bereaved of the two of you as well in one day?” (Genesis 27:45). Readers generally understand her words about losing both of them to mean that Jacob would be killed and that Esau would then be executed for murder, leaving Rebekah childless. Again, compare the wise woman of Tekoa’s story in 2 Samuel 14. She pleads with King David not to let her son be executed for the murder of his brother, and the basis of her plea is that then she will be left childless. And both of these stories come in the shadow of the Cain-and-Abel story, in which God must put a sign to protect Cain, because otherwise everyone will seek to kill him for murdering his brother (Genesis 4:13–15) ..."

Friedman, Richard Elliott The Hidden Book in the Bible (p. 43) Harper San Francisco, 1998

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