Read "The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
JOSEPH AND I returned to camp, afraid we would be questioned about our absence and worried about trying to keep what had happened from our keen-eyed mothers. But no one saw us come. All eyes were fixed upon a stranger who stood before Jacob. The man spoke in the clipped accents of the south, and the first words I heard from his mouth were "my father." As I crept around to see the face of the messenger, I saw someone who could only be a kinsman.
It was Eliphaz, Esau's oldest son and my cousin, who looked so much like Judah that I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from blurting it out loud. He was as ruddy and handsome as Judah, though taller-as tall as Reuben, in fact. He spoke with Reuben's gestures, his head tilted to one side, his left arm wrapped around his waist, his right hand clenching and unclenching, as he brought us the news we had dreaded for so long.