(Poetry Challenge 9)

This ballad is about one of my favorite couples in the Bible. The account can be found in Genesis 24 and 25 (KJV).

The Ballad of Isaac and Rebekah

Isaac intreats the Lord for his wife, Rebekah.
After many years together, no children has she bore.
Soon she conceives, and they are blessed by the Lord
With sons Esau and Jacob; Isaac’s age is threescore.

Twenty years ago, their story begins
Outside the city of Nahor at a well of water.
Rebekah, a virgin and very fair to look upon
Approaches, carrying a pitcher on her shoulder.

A man runs to meet her, asking for a little water.
She gives drink to the man and his ten camels kneeling.
He asks who her father is and if his house has room to lodge in.
“I am Bethuel’s daughter; yes, we have room for lodging.”

The man gives her a golden earring and two bracelets of gold
Then bows his head and worships the Lord.
“My master, Abraham, has sent me to find a wife for his son.
The house of my master’s brethren, the Lord has led me toward.”

Rebekah runs to tell her family what she’s just heard,
And the servant accepts her brother’s welcoming reception.
Laban provides for the servant, his men, and his camels,
But the servant would not eat before telling his mission.

“My master was blessed with a son when his wife was old.
After Sarah died, he swore me to go to his kindred; yea,  
for Isaac, who is forty, a wife I shall find.
The Lord also sent his angel to prosper my way.

Just as I’d spoken the words in my heart, who came to the well?
Rebekah, the one appointed for the son of my master.”
Laban and Bethuel tell the servant, “Go and let her be Isaac’s wife.”
Then the servant gives her raiment and jewels of gold and silver. 

When the servant and his men ready to leave in the morn,
Her brother and mother want her to tarry before saying goodbyes.
The servant requests they hinder him not from returning to his master.
They ask her, “Will you go with him?” “I will go,” she replies.

They bless Rebekah, the mother of thousands of millions.
On camels after the servant, she and her damsels follow.
Near the end of their journey, they reach a field at eventide, 
And Rebekah sees a man approaching them, walking slow.

“Who is this man?” she asks. “It is my master, Isaac.”
She covers herself with a vail and leaps down to the ground.
Isaac, who was meditating when he saw them return,
Listens as the servant tells all he had done, and his thoughts abound.

Isaac brings Rebekah into his mother’s tent.
She becomes his wife, and he loves her deeply.
Brought together by the Lord because of their faith,
They are comforted and blessed eternally.

Poem by Karolyn Herrera, March 7, 2023

Image created by MidJourney