REBEKAH rĭ bĕk’ ə (רִבְקָ֖ה, LXX ̔Ρεβέκκα, G4831, prob. tie, loop; cf. Arab. raboqa, make fast; Targ. rebqa = heb. marbeq, stall). Eng. VSS in Romans 9:10 spell Rebecca, as Gr.

1. Family. Daughter of Bethuel, who was nephew to Abraham (Gen 22:20ff.) and lived in the Aramaean country near the Euphrates. She became Isaac’s wife, and mother of Esau and Jacob.

2. Marriage. Rebekah’s encounter with Abraham’s steward (Gen 24) is remembered as a classic example of divine providence and guidance. She met this aged traveler with his camels outside her city as she returned one evening from the well. When he asked her for a drink, she readily gave it, but she also offered to draw for his camels, and did so with good will, little knowing that the man had just prayed for this very sign. Finding that she was a relative of his master, and also that she was beautiful, he recognized the abundant answer to his prayer.

When they heard what Abraham’s steward had to say, Rebekah’s father and brother felt that they could only acknowledge the Lord’s leading. They wanted her to delay, however, for a few days of leave-taking; asked to decide, Rebekah preferred to go immediately. So Rebekah was brought to Isaac, “and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death” (Gen 24:67).

3. Motherhood. For twenty years of her marriage Rebekah had no children; then in answer to Isaac’s prayer, God gave her twins (25:20-26). Her experience while carrying them foreshadowed conflict between her descendants, and she was told that God had chosen the younger twin for His blessing. Malachi cites the evidence of it in Israel’s experience (Mal 1:2f.). Paul shows that God was establishing and typifying the principle of electing grace (Rom 9:10-13).

Jacob, the younger son, unadventurous, always in camp, became Rebekah’s favorite (Gen 25:28); and she plotted the deception by which he gained his father’s formal blessing (ch. 27). Esau then would have murdered Jacob, but God overruled in this also. Esau had married Hitt. women to the disappointment of his parents; Rebekah induced Isaac to send Jacob back to Haran to find a wife.

According to Genesis 49:31, Rebekah was buried in the family tomb at Mach-pelah near Hebron.

Bibliography J. Skinner, Genesis² ICC, (1930); G. von Rad, Genesis (1961); E. Speiser, Genesis (1964).