Rebekah רִבְקָה
Wife of Isaac; mother of Jacob and Esau
Who is Rebekah in the Bible?
Rebekah was the wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau, making her a key matriarch in the lineage leading to Israel (Genesis 24-25). The daughter of Bethuel and granddaughter of Abraham's brother Nahor, she was chosen by God to be Isaac's bride when Abraham's servant was sent to find him a suitable wife (Genesis 24:15-67). After years of barrenness, Isaac prayed for her and she miraculously conceived twins, but during her pregnancy God revealed to her that two nations were within her and "the older will serve the younger" (Genesis 25:21-23). Though she gave birth to Esau first and Jacob second, Rebekah favored Jacob and orchestrated his deception of his aging father Isaac to obtain the firstborn's blessing, setting in motion the conflict between the brothers (Genesis 27). Her role as the mother of Jacob, whom God later renamed Israel, made her theologically significant as a matriarch of God's chosen people and an instrument of God's sovereign plan, even through morally questionable means.
Biography
Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel and the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham's brother (Gen.22.23). She became the wife of Isaac after a servant of Abraham was sent to find a suitable bride for him (Genesis 24). Rebekah was a beautiful woman and was chosen by God to be Isaac's wife (Gen.24.15-67). She was barren for many years, but Isaac prayed for her, and she conceived twins (Gen.25.21). During her pregnancy, the Lord revealed to Rebekah that two nations were in her womb and that the older would serve the younger (Gen.25.23). Rebekah gave birth to Esau and Israel (or 'Jacob') (Gen.25.24-26). She favored Jacob over Esau and helped him deceive Isaac into giving him the firstborn's blessing (Genesis 27). This led to a conflict between the brothers, and Jacob had to flee to escape Esau's anger (Gen.27.41-45). Rebekah's deception had consequences for the family, but God's plan for Jacob prevailed. Rebekah's nurse, Deborah, died and was buried near Bethel (Gen.35.8). Rebekah died and was buried in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah were also buried (Gen.49.31). In the New Testament, Paul uses Rebekah's story to illustrate God's sovereignty in election (Rom.9.10-12).
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In Scripture
2 biblical books ; 2 with study contentGenesis 5 verses
- Genesis 22:23
"And Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight sons to Abraham’s brother Nahor."
Study Genesis → - Genesis 24:15
"Before the servant had finished praying, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham’s brother Nahor."
Study Genesis → - Genesis 24:29
"Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he rushed out to the man at the spring."
Study Genesis → - Genesis 24:30
"As soon as he saw the ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s wrists, and heard Rebekah’s words, “The man said this to me,” he went and found the man standing by the camels near the spring."
Study Genesis → - Genesis 24:45
"And before I had finished praying in my heart, there was Rebekah coming out with her jar on her shoulder, and she went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’"
Study Genesis →
Romans 1 verse
- Romans 9:10
"Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac."
Study Romans →
Names & Aliases
| Form | Language | Script |
|---|---|---|
| Named | Hebrew | רִבְקָה |
| Greek | Greek | Ῥεβέκκα |
Rebekah
Her name is usually explained from the Arabic, rabqat, "a tie-rope for animals," or, rather, "a noose" in such a rope; its application would then by figure suggest the beauty (?) of her that bears it, by means of which men are snared or bound; The root is found in Hebrew only in the noun meaning "hitching-place" or "stall," in the familiar phrase "fatted calf" or "calf of the stall," and in view of the meaning of such names as Rachel and Eglah the name Rebekah might well mean (concrete for abstract, like riqmah, chemdah, etc.) a "tied-up calf" (or "lamb"?), one therefore peculiarly choice and fat.
Rebekah is first mentioned in the genealogy of the descendants of Nahor, brother of Abraham (Ge 22:20-24). In fact, the family is there carried down just so far as is necessary in order to introduce this woman, for whose subsequent appearance and role the genealogy is obviously intended as a preparation. All this branch of the family of Terah had remained in Aram when Abraham and Lot had migrated to Canaan, and it is at Haran, "the city of Nahor," that we first meet Rebekah, when in Genesis 24 she is made known to Abraham's servant at the well before the gate.
That idyllic narrative of the finding of a bride for Isaac is too familiar to need rehearsal and too simple to require comment. Besides, the substance both of that story and of the whole of Rebekah's career is treated in connection with the sketches of the other actors in the same scenes. Yet we note from the beginning the maiden's decision of character, which appears in every line of the narrative, and prepares the reader to find in subsequent chapters the positive, ambitious and energetic woman that she there shows herself.
Though the object of her husband's love (Ge 24:67), Rebekah bore him no children for 20 years (Ge 25:20,26). Like Sarah, she too was barren, and it was only after that score of years and after the special intercession of Isaac that God at length granted her twin sons. "The purpose of God according to election," as Paul expresses the matter in Ro 9:11, was the cause of that strange oracle to the wondering, inquiring parents, "The elder shall serve the younger" (Ge 25:23).
Whether because of this oracle or for some other reason, it was that younger son, Jacob, who became the object of his mother's special love (Ge 25:28). She it was who led him into the deception practiced upon Isaac (Ge 27:5-17), and she it was who devised the plan for extricating Jacob from the dangerous situation into which that deception had brought him (Ge 27:42-46). When the absence of Jacob from home became essential to his personal safety, Rebekah proposed her own relations in Aram as the goal of his journey, and gave as motive the desirability of Jacob's marrying from among her kindred. Probably she did not realize that in sending her favorite son away on this journey she was sending him away from her forever. Yet such seems to have been the case. Though younger than Isaac, who was still living at an advanced age when Jacob returned to Canaan a quarter of a century later, Rebekah seems to have died during that term. We learn definitely only this, that she was buried in the cave of Machpelah near Hebron (Ge 49:31).
Outside of Genesis, Rebekah is alluded to in Scripture only in the passage from Romans (9:10-12) already cited. Her significance there is simply that of the wife of Isaac and the mother of two sons of such different character and destiny as Esau and Jacob. And her significance in Gen, apart from this, lies in her contribution to the family of Abraham of a pure strain from the same eastern stock, thus transmitting to the founders of Israel both an unmixed lineage and that tradition of separateness from Canaanite and other non-Hebrew elements which has proved the greatest factor in the ethnological marvel of the ages, the persistence of the Hebrew people.
J. Oscar Boyd
re-buk': As a verb "rebuke" is in the Old Testament the translation of ga`ar and yakhach; another word, ribh, in Ne 5:7, is in the Revised Version (British and American) translated "c