Rebekah

Daughter of Bethuel, and the wife of Isaac. (Gen. 24.) Her history we have at large in Genesis. Her name, if from Rabah, means fat.

the wife of Isaac. See ISAAC.

Rebek´ah (a noosed cord); daughter of Bethuel, and sister of Laban, who became the wife of Isaac, and the mother of Jacob and Esau. The particulars of her history and conduct, as given in Scripture, chiefly illustrate her preference of Jacob over Esau, and have been related in the article Jacob: see also Isaac.

A daughter of Bethuel, and sister of Laban in Mesopotamia, who became the wife of Isaac, and twenty years afterwards the mother of Jacob and Esau. The manner in which she was sought and obtained as the wife of Isaac, exhibits a striking picture of oriental manners and customs. Through her partiality for Jacob, she was tempted into the use of unjustifiable means to secure for him the inheritance, not having faith to leave to God the fulfilment of his own purposes, Gen 25:22,23 . Her deceit led to disastrous results: Jacob fled from home; and when he returned from Mesopotamia twenty years afterwards, his mother lay buried in the cave of Machpelah, Gen 24:1-28:22 49:31.\par

Rebek’ah. (ensnarer). Daughter of Bethuel, Gen 22:23, and sister of Laban, married to Isaac. She is first presented to us in Gen 24:1, where the beautiful story of her marriage is related. (B.C. 1857). For nineteen years, she was childless: then Esau and Jacob were born, the younger being the mother’s companion and favorite. Gen 25:19-28.

Rebekah suggested the deceit, that was practiced by Jacob, on his blind father. She directed and aided him, in carrying it out, foresaw the probable consequence of Esau’s anger, and prevented it by moving Isaac, to send Jacob away to Padan-aram, Gen 27:1, to her own kindred. Gen 29:12. Rebekah’s beauty became, at one time, a source of danger to her husband. Gen 26:7. It has been conjectured that she died, during Jacob’s sojourn in Padan-aram.

Rom 9:10. Arabic, "a rope with a noose," i.e. captivating. Bethuel’s daughter, Laban’s sister, Isaac’s wife (Gen 22:23; Gen 22:24), Rebekah, the grand-daughter of Abraham’s brother, marries Isaac, Abraham’s son; it is an undesigned coincidence with probability that Isaac was the son of Abraham’s and Sarah’s old age (Gen 18:12), and so, though of a generation earlier than Rebekah, yet not so much her senior in years. (See ISAAC.) A model marriage: God’s direction was asked and given, the godly seed was equally yoked with the seed of the godly, the parents sanctioned it, Rebekah was one who had as a maiden discharged domestic duties diligently; her beauty, courtesy, willing consent, modesty, all made her deservedly attractive, and secured Isaac’s love at once and permanently. Barren for 19 years, she at last received children by God’s gift in answer to Isaac’s prayers.

Before they were born she was told, in answer to her inquiry of the Lord because of her sensations, the elder shall serve the younger (Gen 25:21-23; Rom 9:10-12), illustrating "the purpose of God, according to election, not of works but of Him that calleth," inasmuch as it was when "neither had done any good or evil." (See JACOB; ESAU.) Jacob was her favorite because of his gentle domestic habits (Gen 25:28). This partiality led her to the deceit practiced on Isaac to gain his blessing for Jacob (Genesis 27). Esau’s Hittite wives "were a grief to Isaac and Rebekah" (Gen 26:34-35.) Her beauty tempted Isaac when in Gerar, through fear of being killed for Rebekah’s sake, to say she was his sister. All compromises of truth, through fear of man (Pro 29:25), bring their own punishment. Isaac exposed her to the risk of defilement, which a straightforward course would have averted, and exposed himself to the rebuke of the worldly Abimelech. (See ABIMELECH.) (Genesis 26).

She saved Jacob from Esau’s murderous fury by inducing Isaac to send him away to Padan Aram (Gen 28:1-5); thus she brought on herself by the one great sin the loss of her favorite’s presence for the rest of her life, for she was not alive when he returned, Isaac alone survived (Gen 35:27). Faith in God’s promise as to Jacob the younger, given before birth, prompted her to seek the blessing for him; unbelief and ignorance of God’s holiness tempted her to do evil that good might come. Deborah her nurse died and was buried at Bethel on Jacob’s return. (See DEBORAH.) She evidently had gone back to Padan Aram, and joined Jacob after her mistress’ death. Rebekah was buried in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Sarah. Isaac was subsequently buried there (Gen 49:31).

Rebekah (re-bĕk’ah), a cord with a noose, enchaining. The daughter of Bethuel and sister of Laban. She was a woman of personal attractions and became the wife of Isaac, to whom late in life she bore Esau and Jacob. Gen 22:23; Gen 24:15-67; Gen 25:20-28. Of her sons, Jacob was Rebekah’s favorite; and she persuaded him to obtain his father’s blessing by fraud. Gen 26:7-8; Gen 26:35; Gen 27:1-46. In consequence Jacob had to flee from his brother’s wrath; and it is probable that Rebekah saw her best-loved son no more. Gen 28:5; Gen 29:12; Gen 35:8; Gen 49:31. She died before Isaac.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Executive Committee of the Editorial Board.

Daughter of Bethuel, sister of Laban, and wife of Isaac (Gen. xxii. 23, xxiv. 29, 67). Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to seek a wife for Isaac. Arriving with his attendants at Aram-naharaim, Eliezer stopped near the well outside the city and declared to Yhwh that he would choose the first maiden that should offer to draw water for himself and his camels, though he should ask it only for himself. After Rebekah had drawn the water, Eliezer asked and obtained her father's and brother's consent to her departure. Rebekah remained childless for nineteen years, when she bore two sons, twins, after Isaac had besought Yhwh to remove her barrenness (Gen. xxv. 20-26). Afterward, when Isaac temporarily settled at Gerar, he and Rebekah agreed to pass as brother and sister. Abimelech, the King of Gerar, having discovered that Rebekah was Isaac's wife, under penalty of death forbade any to do them harm (Gen. xxvi. 6-11). Shortly before Isaac's death, Rebekah, moved by her preference for Jacob, induced the latter to intercept by a trick the blessing which his father had destined for his brother Esau (Gen. xxvii. 6 et seq.). Later she exhorted Jacob to flee to her brother Laban until Esau should have forgotten the injury done him. Rebekah was buried in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. xlix. 31). See Jacob.

—In Rabbinical Literature:

The Rabbis disagree as to the age of Rebekah at the time of her marriage to Isaac. The statement of the Seder 'Olam Rabbah (i.) and Gen. R. (lvii. 1) that Abraham was informed of Rebekah's birth when he ascended Mount Moriah for the 'Aḳedah, is interpreted by some as meaning that Rebekah was born at that time, and that consequently she was only three years old at the time of her marriage. Other rabbis, however, conclude from calculations that she was fourteen years old, and that therefore she was born eleven years before the 'Aḳedah, both numbers being found in different manuscripts of the Seder 'Olam Rabbah (comp. Tos. to Yeb. 61b). The "Sefer ha-Yashar" (section "Ḥayye Sarah," p. 38a, Leghorn, 1870) gives Rebekah's age at her marriage as ten years.

From the fact that when Rebekah went down to the well the water rose toward her (Gen. R. lx. 6) Eliezer immediately recognized that she was the maiden chosen by God as lsaac's wife. The miracles which had been wrought through the virtue of Sarah and which had ceased after the latter's death, recommenced through the virtue of Rebekah (Gen. R. lx. 15) when she was taken by Isaac into his tent (Gen. xxiv. 67).

Rebekah joined Isaac in prayer to God for a child, they having prostrated themselves opposite each other. Isaac prayed that the children he was destined to have might be borne by the righteous Rebekah, the latter that she might have children by Isaac only. Isaac's prayer alone was answered (comp. Gen. xxv. 21), because he was a righteous man, and the son of a righteous man, while Rebekah's whole family was wicked (Yeb. 64a; Gen. R. lxiii. 5). It is said that Rebekah, when suffering from her pregnancy (comp. Gen. xxv. 22), went from door to door, asking the women whether they had ever experienced the like. The answer she received (ib. xxv. 23) came, according to R. Eleazar b. Simcon, directly from God; R. Ḥama b. Ḥanina declares that God spoke through an angel, and R. Eleazar b. Pedat that the answer was delivered through Shem, the son of Noah, into whose bet ha-midrash Rebekah had gone to inquire (Gen. R. lxiii. 6-8). She should have borne twelve sons, fathers of twelve tribes, but through the birth of Esau she became barren again (Pesiḳ. iii. 23b; Gen. R. lxiii. 6-7). Rebekah was a prophetess; therefore she knew that Esau intended to slay Jacob after Isaac's death, and the words "Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day" (Gen. xxvii. 45) are interpreted as being her prophecy to this effect (Soṭah 13a; Gen. R. lxvii. 9).

The Rabbis agree that Rebekah died at the age of 133 years (Sifre, Deut. 357; Midr. Tadshe, in Epstein. "Mi-Ḳadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim," p. xxii.; "Sefer ha-Yashar," section "Wayishlaḥ," p. 56b). Her death occurred while Jacob was on his way back to his parents' home; and it was coincident withthat of Deborah (comp. Gen. xxxv. 8). Her decease is not mentioned because Jacob not having yet arrived, Esau was the only son present to attend to her burial. Moreover, the ceremony was performed at night out of shame that her coffin should be followed by a son like Esau (Pesiḳ. l.c.; Midr. Agadah on Gen. l.c.). According to the Book of Jubilees (xxxi. 8-11, 48), Jacob, when he arrived home, found his mother alive; and she afterward accompanied him to Beth-el to accomplish his vow (comp. Gen. xxviii. 19-20). She died at the age of 155, five years before Isaac's death (Jubilees, xxxv. 1, 41), this determining that her age when she married was twenty years.

REBEKAH (in Rom 9:10 Rebecca).—The daughter of Bethnel, the son of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, and his wife Milcah (Gen 22:23). She was also the sister of Laban and became the wife of Isaac. The well-known story of the facts leading up to the marriage of Isaac and Rebekah is told in Gen 24:1-67, and gives valuable information as to early marriage customs. Isaac is not consulted. Abraham’s servant Eliezer (Gen 15:2) is sent to seek for a wife among his master’s kinsfolk. The servant proceeds to the ‘city of Nahor’ (Haran), and, arriving at the gate of the city, waits by the well till the women come out to draw water (Gen 15:11). He prays that God may prosper him and give him a sign by which he may recognize the woman Providence has set apart for Isaac. Rebekah comes out and offers to draw water for the stranger and his camels. The servant loads her with gifts, and her family, led by her brother Laban, being convinced of Abraham’s wealth, and recognizing the will of Heaven in the selection, agrees to the marriage. Rebekah returns with the servant and becomes Isaac’s wife (v. 67).

In Gen 25:21 we are told that Rebekah, like many other favourite wives of the OT (e.g. Sarah, Rachel, Hannah), was at first barren, but in answer to Isaac’s prayer Jacob and Esau were born (Gen 25:24-26). Before their birth Rebekah received the oracle from Jehovah, that two nations were in her womb and that the elder should serve the younger. No doubt this story is a late Jewish legend, arising from the desire to find the history of the two peoples Israel and Edom foreshadowed in the lives of their progenitors.

Rebekah again comes before us during Isaac’s sojourn in Gerar (Gen 26:6-11). Fearing lest the beauty of his wife might excite the desire of the king of Gerar and so lead to his own death, Isaac passed her off as his sister—a course of action which led him into difficulties with Abimelech (Gen 26:10).

The destiny of Jacob, her favourite son, was strongly influenced by his strong-minded mother. She was the author of the treacherous plan by which Jacob deprived Esau of his father’s blessing (Gen 27:1-46). She advised him to flee from his home to her brother Laban (Gen 27:43-45). In Gen 28:1 f., however, the motive of the journey is that he might take a wife from the family of his mother, in contrast to Esau, who had grieved his parents by taking a wife from among the Canaanites (Gen 26:34-35). Rebekah died before Jacob’s return from Haran, and her burial at Machpelah is mentioned in Gen 49:31. The death and burial of Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, who had followed her from Haran (Gen 24:59), are reported to have taken place after Jacob had returned to Canaan (Gen 35:8).

The character of Rebekah has a peculiar charm and fascination. Appearing first as a pure, unselfish, loving girl, she becomes a woman of great strength of mind and depth of character. She is clever, active, energetic. She can make plans and carry them out, give orders and expect them to be obeyed, but her masterful spirit cannot brook opposition or contradiction. Esau’s wives vex her beyond measure. When she loves, she loves with all her soul, and will spare no pains, consider no consequences, or grudge any sacrifice for those she loves. ‘Upon me be thy curse, my son’ (Gen 27:13), is her answer to Jacob when he fears that a curse will fall on his deception. Although that curse fell and her beloved son had to flee and she saw his face no more, yet we forget the scheming, plotting woman in the loving wife and self-sacrificing mother.

W. F. Boyd.

rḗ-bek´a (רבקה, ribhḳāh; Septuagint and New Testament Ῥεβέκκα, Rhébekka, whence the usual English spelling Rebecca): Daughter of Bethuel and an unknown mother, grand-daughter of Nahor and Milcah, sister of Laban, wife of Isaac, mother of Esau and Jacob.

Her name is usually explained from the Arabic, rabḳat, “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 רקמה, riḳmāh, חמדּה, ḥemdāh, 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 (Gen 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 (Gen 24:67), Rebekah bore him no children for 20 years (Gen 25:20, Gen 25:26). 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 Rom 9:11, was the cause of that strange oracle to the wondering, inquiring parents, “The elder shall serve the younger” (Gen 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 (Gen 25:28). She it was who led him into the deception practiced upon Isaac (Gen 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 (Gen 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 (Gen 49:31).

Outside of Genesis, Rebekah is alluded to in Scripture only in the passage from Romans (Rom 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.

As the wife of Isaac, Rebekah had an important part in God’s development of a people for himself according to the promise he gave to Abraham (Gen 22:15-18; Gen 24:3-4; Gen 24:67). Isaac and Rebekah were without children for twenty years, but then Rebekah gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob (Gen 25:20-26). Though God had told her that the covenant would be fulfilled through the younger son rather than the older (Gen 25:23; Rom 9:10-13), she had no right to work out a scheme to deceive Isaac. She was determined that nothing would prevent Jacob from receiving the blessing (Gen 27:6-29).

When Esau plotted to kill Jacob, Rebekah thought out another scheme, this time to protect Jacob. She decided to send him north to her brother in Paddan-aram. Again she deceived Isaac, this time by persuading him that the reason Jacob should go north was to find a wife among her people (Gen 27:41-46; Gen 28:1-5).

There is no record that Rebekah ever saw her favourite son again. Upon her death, she was buried in the burial ground that Abraham had bought for his family (Gen 49:31).