People of the Bible

Rebekah

The girl at the well who watered ten camels, and the mother who chose which son would carry the promise.

Also called Rebecca; daughter of Bethuel, sister of Laban

Rebekah is the wife of Isaac and the mother of Esau and Jacob. She first appears at a well outside the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia, where Abraham's servant has just prayed that the right woman would offer water to him and to his camels. She does exactly that, drawing for ten camels until they finish, and the servant knows his prayer is answered before he knows her name. She is Abraham's great-niece, granddaughter of his brother Nahor. Asked whether she will go with the stranger to a land she has never seen and marry a man she has never met, she says: I will go.

She is barren for twenty years, and when Isaac prays and she conceives, the twins fight inside her so violently that she goes to inquire of the LORD. The answer is the oracle that governs the rest of the account: two nations, and the elder shall serve the younger. She loves Jacob. When Isaac, old and blind, prepares to bless Esau, she overhears, dresses Jacob in Esau's clothes and goat skins, cooks the meal, and takes the curse on herself if the trick fails. It works. Then she sends Jacob to her brother Laban to escape Esau's anger, telling Isaac it is to find a wife, and she never sees her favourite son again. Her death is not recorded, only her burial at Machpelah.

Where she appearsGenesis 24 to 27

Genesis

Scroll down to the account

The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Rebekah

01
Genesis 22:20-23
Named at the end of a genealogy
After the binding of Isaac, Abraham hears that his brother Nahor has children, and the list ends with Bethuel begat Rebekah. It is the first mention of her name, placed right where the reader is wondering who Isaac will marry.
She arrives as a line in a family notice, and the placing is deliberate. Abraham has just come down from Moriah with the son he nearly lost, and the next thing the chapter reports is news from home: his brother Nahor has eight sons, and one of them, Bethuel, begat Rebekah. The Book of Genesis singles her out of a list where no other grandchild is named. Two chapters before anyone goes looking for a wife, the reader is told where she is. It is the quietest kind of providence the book records, a genealogy doing the work of a promise, and it means that when the servant sets out in chapter 24 not knowing whom he seeks, the answer has already been on the page for a while.
Verse by verse
1. 22:20
  After these things: immediately after the binding of Isaac. The son is spared and the next verse begins arranging his future.
2. 22:23
  Bethuel begat Rebekah: the only grandchild named in the list, and the only woman. The list exists for her.
Genesis 22:20-23
King James Version · 4 verses
22:20And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
22:21Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22:22And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
22:23And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.
02
Genesis 24:15-27
Ten camels
Before the servant has finished praying, she comes out with her pitcher on her shoulder. She gives him a drink and then draws for all his camels until they are done, and he watches in silence to know whether the LORD has made his journey prosper. He gives her a gold ring and two bracelets and learns whose daughter she is.
The servant asks for a sign so specific it can only be answered by character: let the girl who offers to water my camels be the one. Before he had done speaking, Rebekah comes out with her pitcher. She gives him a drink, then says the sentence he was praying to hear, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking. Ten camels after a long journey is somewhere near two hundred gallons, drawn by hand, and she runs back to the well to do it. The man wondering at her held his peace, watching, because the answer has come too fast and too completely. Then the gold, then the question about her family, then her lineage, and the servant bows and worships in the road: I being in the way, the LORD led me.
Verse by verse
1. 24:15
  Before he had done speaking: the answer was already walking toward him while he framed the request.
2. 24:19
  Until they have done drinking: not a courtesy but hours of labour, offered to a stranger who did not ask.
3. 24:21
  Held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous: he waits before believing it, which is why the chapter can be trusted.
4. 24:27
  I being in the way: he credits the guidance to the going, not to the arriving. He worships before anything is agreed.
Genesis 24:15-27
King James Version · 13 verses
24:15And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
24:16And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.
24:17And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.
24:18And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.
24:19And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.
24:20And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
24:21And the man wondering at her held his peace, to wit whether the LORD had made his journey prosperous or not.
24:22And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold;
24:23And said, Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee: is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in?
24:24And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, which she bare unto Nahor.
24:25She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in.
24:26And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD.
24:27And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.
03
Genesis 24:28-61
I will go
Her brother Laban and her father Bethuel hear the servant's account and say the thing proceeds from the LORD. When the servant wants to leave in the morning, the family asks for ten days, and then asks her. She says: I will go. They bless her: be thou the mother of thousands of millions.
Her brother Laban comes out to meet the servant, and the Book of Genesis tells us exactly what moves him: when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister's hands. It is the first note of a character who will spend twenty years bargaining with Jacob. The servant refuses to eat until he has told his errand, repeats the whole account, and asks for an answer. The family agrees, the thing proceedeth from the LORD, and then tries to keep her ten days. The servant presses, and they do the one thing that decides the chapter: we will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth. She is asked, wilt thou go with this man, and answers in two words, I will go. Then the blessing her family sends her away with, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, which is the promise given to Abraham arriving in a woman's mouth from outside the covenant.
Verse by verse
1. 24:30
  When he saw the earring: Laban's first appearance in Scripture is framed by what he noticed. Everything later confirms it.
2. 24:33
  I will not eat, until I have told mine errand: the servant will not accept hospitality that might oblige him.
3. 24:50
  The thing proceedeth from the LORD: Laban and Bethuel concede that the match is not theirs to negotiate, and then negotiate anyway.
4. 24:58
  I will go: the decision is hers and it is immediate. She leaves her country as Abraham did, and without the voice he heard.
5. 24:60
  The mother of thousands of millions: her family's parting blessing repeats the substance of God's promise in 22:17.
Genesis 24:28-61
King James Version · 34 verses
24:28And the damsel ran, and told them of her mother’s house these things.
24:29And Rebekah had a brother, and his name was Laban: and Laban ran out unto the man, unto the well.
24:30And it came to pass, when he saw the earring and bracelets upon his sister’s hands, and when he heard the words of Rebekah his sister, saying, Thus spake the man unto me; that he came unto the man; and, behold, he stood by the camels at the well.
24:31And he said, Come in, thou blessed of the LORD; wherefore standest thou without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the camels.
24:32And the man came into the house: and he ungirded his camels, and gave straw and provender for the camels, and water to wash his feet, and the men’s feet that were with him.
24:33And there was set meat before him to eat: but he said, I will not eat, until I have told mine errand. And he said, Speak on.
24:34And he said, I am Abraham’s servant.
24:35And the LORD hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.
24:36And Sarah my master’s wife bare a son to my master when she was old: and unto him hath he given all that he hath.
24:37And my master made me swear, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I dwell:
24:38But thou shalt go unto my father’s house, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son.
24:39And I said unto my master, Peradventure the woman will not follow me.
24:40And he said unto me, The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with thee, and prosper thy way; and thou shalt take a wife for my son of my kindred, and of my father’s house:
24:41Then shalt thou be clear from this my oath, when thou comest to my kindred; and if they give not thee one, thou shalt be clear from my oath.
24:42And I came this day unto the well, and said, O LORD God of my master Abraham, if now thou do prosper my way which I go:
24:43Behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass, that when the virgin cometh forth to draw water, and I say to her, Give me, I pray thee, a little water of thy pitcher to drink;
24:44And she say to me, Both drink thou, and I will also draw for thy camels: let the same be the woman whom the LORD hath appointed out for my master’s son.
24:45And before I had done speaking in mine heart, behold, Rebekah came forth with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down unto the well, and drew water: and I said unto her, Let me drink, I pray thee.
24:46And she made haste, and let down her pitcher from her shoulder, and said, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: so I drank, and she made the camels drink also.
24:47And I asked her, and said, Whose daughter art thou? And she said, The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bare unto him: and I put the earring upon her face, and the bracelets upon her hands.
24:48And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master’s brother’s daughter unto his son.
24:49And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.
24:50Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.
24:51Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the LORD hath spoken.
24:52And it came to pass, that, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth.
24:53And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment, and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.
24:54And they did eat and drink, he and the men that were with him, and tarried all night; and they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master.
24:55And her brother and her mother said, Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at the least ten; after that she shall go.
24:56And he said unto them, Hinder me not, seeing the LORD hath prospered my way; send me away that I may go to my master.
24:57And they said, We will call the damsel, and enquire at her mouth.
24:58And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go.
24:59And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham’s servant, and his men.
24:60And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
24:61And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.
04
Genesis 24:62-67
Meeting Isaac
She sees a man walking in the field at evening, learns it is Isaac, and covers herself with a veil. Isaac brings her into Sarah's tent, she becomes his wife, and he loves her. The chapter ends: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.
The two halves of the chapter meet in a field at evening. Isaac went out to meditate at the eventide, lifted up his eyes, and the camels were coming. She lifts up her eyes at the same moment, sees a man walking toward them, and does two things: she lighted off the camel, and she took a vail, and covered herself. She gets down rather than be met on horseback, and she veils, which is what a bride does. Neither of them speaks in the whole scene. The servant tells Isaac everything, and then the chapter ends in one long verse that does more than it seems to: he brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death. A tent that has been empty for three years is occupied again, and the first recorded love of a husband for a wife is also the end of a man's grief.
Verse by verse
1. 24:63
  To meditate: the word is rare and its sense uncertain, somewhere between musing and praying. It is the only window into Isaac the book gives.
2. 24:65
  She took a vail, and covered herself: the bridal gesture. It is also, in chapter 29, how Laban will be able to substitute Leah.
3. 24:67
  He loved her: the first time in Scripture. The sentence joins it to comfort, so the love is doing something as well as being felt.
Genesis 24:62-67
King James Version · 6 verses
24:62And Isaac came from the way of the well Lahai-roi; for he dwelt in the south country.
24:63And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide: and he lifted up his eyes, and saw, and, behold, the camels were coming.
24:64And Rebekah lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off the camel.
24:65For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.
24:66And the servant told Isaac all things that he had done.
24:67And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her: and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.
05
Genesis 25:21-26
The oracle
Barren, she conceives after Isaac's prayer, and the children struggle within her. She asks why, and goes to inquire of the LORD, who tells her two nations are in her womb, two peoples will be separated, one will be stronger, and the elder shall serve the younger. Esau is born first, Jacob holding his heel.
She is barren for twenty years, and the text gives that fact without drama and without blaming her. Isaac prays for his wife, and the LORD was intreated of him. Then the pregnancy is violent, and her response is the one that matters: if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. She does not send her husband and she does not endure it quietly; she goes and asks, and she is answered directly. Two nations are in thy womb, and the elder shall serve the younger. Rebekah is the only matriarch who receives an oracle about her children before they are born, and she receives it alone. Everything she does for the next fifty years, including the worst of it, is done by a woman who was told the ending in advance.
Verse by verse
1. 25:21
  Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife: twenty years pass between 25:20 and 25:26, and the waiting is given in two numbers rather than described.
2. 25:22
  She went to enquire of the LORD: the only time in Genesis a woman seeks an oracle for herself and is given one.
3. 25:23
  The elder shall serve the younger: the word can also be read the elder, the younger shall serve, but Genesis and Romans 9:12 both take it the first way.
4. 25:26
  Isaac was threescore years old: she has carried the oracle since before the birth, and the birth confirms its first half.
Genesis 25:21-26
King James Version · 6 verses
25:21And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
25:22And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
25:23And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
25:24And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25:25And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
25:26And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.
06
Genesis 25:28
A divided house
Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. One verse sets up everything that follows.
One verse breaks the family in half, and it is constructed so the two halves are not equal. Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. His love is given a reason, and it is an appetite. Hers is given none at all. The reader who remembers chapter 25 verse 23 can supply one, since she alone was told which son carried the promise, but the Book of Genesis refuses to say it, and so her love sits on the page unexplained. Both parents pick a child, which is the oldest way to ruin a house. Everything that follows, the stolen blessing, the flight to Haran, the twenty years apart, runs out of this sentence, and Genesis spends it without a word of comment.
Verse by verse
1. 25:28
  Because he did eat of his venison: Isaac's preference is explained by what he tasted. Rebekah's is not explained at all.
2. 25:28
  The verse sits immediately after Esau sells his birthright, so the reader already knows which son despised it.
Genesis 25:28
King James Version · 1 verse
25:28And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.
07
Genesis 26:6-11
Sister, not wife
In Gerar, Isaac says she is his sister because she is fair to look upon and he fears the men will kill him for her. Abimelech sees them together through a window and puts the whole people under warning not to touch her.
In Gerar she becomes the object of the same lie her mother-in-law suffered twice. The men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife. Rebekah says nothing in the passage and is not consulted about a decision that puts her at risk. Unlike Abraham's version of it, there is no half-truth available, she is not Isaac's sister in any sense. The lie ends when Abimelech looks out of a window and sees Isaac sporting with Rebekah, and the king's rebuke is the moral voice of the chapter: one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. She is protected in the end by a pagan king's decree, not by her husband's courage.
Verse by verse
1. 26:7
  She was fair to look upon: the same phrase used of Sarah in 12:11, and the same failure follows it.
2. 26:8
  Sporting with Rebekah: the verb is from the same root as Isaac's name. What gives him away is laughter.
3. 26:11
  He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death: Abimelech secures her safety by law, which Isaac had not attempted.
Genesis 26:6-11
King James Version · 6 verses
26:6And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:
26:7And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.
26:8And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
26:9And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.
26:10And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
26:11And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
08
Genesis 26:34-35
Grief of mind
Esau at forty marries two Hittite women, and the text says they were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. It is the only thing the couple is said to feel together.
Two verses, dropped in without preamble, that explain a great deal of what comes next. Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. The phrase is literally a bitterness of spirit. Both parents are named, so this is the one thing in the account they agree about. Rebekah will use it as her reason in 27:46 for sending Jacob away, and the reason is real even though it is not her only one. Esau marries outside the family twice over, without consulting anyone, at exactly the age his father was when he received a wife chosen with an oath, a journey and a prayer.
Verse by verse
1. 26:34
  Forty years old: the same age Isaac was in 25:20, which invites the comparison between the two marriages.
2. 26:35
  A grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah: the only sentence in the account where the two parents are of one mind.
Genesis 26:34-35
King James Version · 2 verses
26:34And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite:
26:35Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
09
Genesis 27:1-17
Upon me be thy curse
She hears Isaac send Esau to hunt, and tells Jacob to fetch two kids so she can cook them the way Isaac loves. Jacob fears being found out and cursed; she answers, upon me be thy curse, my son. She dresses him in Esau's best clothes and puts the skins on his hands and neck.
Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. Everything follows from that. She has the oracle, she has watched her husband prepare to bless the wrong son anyway, and she does not argue with him or appeal to God; she runs a deception with a speed that suggests she had thought about it. The plan is detailed and practical: two kids of the goats, a dish made the way he likes it, Esau's clothes, the skins on the hands and neck. When Jacob objects, his worry is not that it is wrong but that he will be caught, and her answer is the line the chapter turns on: upon me be thy curse, my son. She takes the consequence onto herself in advance. She is right about the outcome and wrong about the means, and the chapter lets both stand without softening either.
Verse by verse
1. 27:5
  Rebekah heard: she overhears the arrangement, which is how she comes to act at all. Isaac does not consult her.
2. 27:12
  I shall seem to him as a deceiver: Jacob's stated fear is exposure, not wrongdoing. His mother answers the fear he actually has.
3. 27:13
  Upon me be thy curse: she accepts the penalty before the act. She loses him for twenty years, which may be the answer to it.
4. 27:15
  Goodly raiment of her eldest son: kept in the house, which means Esau's clothes were in her keeping, not his wives'.
Genesis 27:1-17
King James Version · 17 verses
27:1And it came to pass, that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son: and he said unto him, Behold, here am I.
27:2And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death:
27:3Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison;
27:4And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.
27:5And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it.
27:6And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying,
27:7Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the LORD before my death.
27:8Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
27:9Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats; and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loveth:
27:10And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.
27:11And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man:
27:12My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.
27:13And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them.
27:14And he went, and fetched, and brought them to his mother: and his mother made savoury meat, such as his father loved.
27:15And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son:
27:16And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck:
27:17And she gave the savoury meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.
10
Genesis 27:41-46
Sending Jacob away
Told that Esau means to kill Jacob after Isaac's death, she sends Jacob to Laban for a few days until his brother's fury turns, asking why she should be deprived of both in one day. To Isaac she says only that she is weary of her life because of the Hittite women and cannot bear Jacob marrying one.
Esau comforts himself with the thought of killing Jacob when the mourning for their father is over, and these words were told to Rebekah. She sends for Jacob, tells him to flee to Laban, and says tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away. It is twenty years. Then the sentence that carries the whole cost of chapter 27 in one line: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? If Jacob dies she loses him, and if Esau kills him she loses Esau to the blood feud. Her stated reason to Isaac is different and entirely true: I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. She gives her husband a reason he already agrees with, and gets the outcome she needs, which is the last thing she is recorded doing.
Verse by verse
1. 27:41
  The days of mourning for my father are at hand: Esau intends to wait, which is why there is time to send Jacob away.
2. 27:44
  A few days: she expects a short exile. Jacob is gone twenty years and returns after she is dead.
3. 27:45
  Deprived also of you both in one day: the killer would be exiled or executed, so the feud costs her both sons either way.
4. 27:46
  The daughters of Heth: a reason Isaac shares, from 26:35. It is true, and it is not the reason she is acting.
Genesis 27:41-46
King James Version · 6 verses
27:41And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
27:42And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
27:43Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
27:44And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away;
27:45Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?
27:46And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
11
Genesis 35:8; 49:31
Her nurse, and her grave
Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, dies on Jacob's return and is buried under the oak of weeping below Bethel. Rebekah's own death is never narrated. Jacob, dying in Egypt, lists the graves at Machpelah: there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife.
Genesis never records her death. It records her nurse's. When Jacob comes home, Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping. The woman who cared for Rebekah as a child, and travelled with her from Haran sixty years before, gets a named tree and a grief. Rebekah gets one line, spoken by Jacob on his own deathbed, listing who lies at Machpelah: there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife. That is all. She sent her favourite son away for a few days and never saw him again, and the book that gave her an oracle before her children were born declines to say when she died or who mourned her.
Verse by verse
1. 35:8
  Deborah, Rebekah's nurse: unnamed in chapter 24, where she travels with her as one of the damsels. She is named only at her burial.
2. 35:8
  Allon-bachuth: the oak of weeping. A grief large enough to name a landmark, for a servant.
3. 49:31
  There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife: the only notice of her death, given in a list by Jacob, decades after the fact.
Genesis 35:8; 49:31
King James Version · 2 verses
35:8But Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and she was buried beneath Beth-el under an oak: and the name of it was called Allon-bachuth.
49:31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

The people, the places and the rest of Scripture.

Reading Rebekah closely

The people she dealt with

Abraham's servant, usually taken to be Eliezer of Damascus, is the first person she meets in the account, and she meets him as a stranger with ten thirsty camels. Her kindness to him is the test he has asked God for, and she passes it without knowing it is a test. Her brother Laban comes running when he sees the gold on her arms, which is the first hint of the man who will later cheat her son Jacob for twenty years. Her father Bethuel says almost nothing; it is Laban and her mother who negotiate.

Isaac is the husband she was fetched for, and he loves her. The text never says she loved him. They are shown together at Gerar, where he passes her off as his sister, and again in one shared grief over Esau's wives. Through the twenty years of barrenness it is Isaac who prays, and it is Rebekah who goes to ask the LORD what the struggle in her womb means. The oracle comes to her alone, and there is no record of her telling him.

Her sons are the axis of her life. Esau, the firstborn, is the hunter his father loves, and he marries outside the family. Jacob, the quiet man who dwells in tents, is the son she loves and the one the oracle named. She engineers the blessing for him and then loses him. The few days she promised became twenty years, and by the time Jacob comes home she is gone.

The deception in chapter 27

Readers have argued for centuries about what Rebekah did. She knew the oracle. She had watched Isaac prepare to bless the son God had not chosen, in private, over a meal, without witnesses. Her scheme is quick and complete: the kids from the flock, the clothes, the skins, the readiness to bear the curse herself. Isaac suspects, feels the hands, smells the clothes, and blesses Jacob anyway.

The narrative lets the consequences stand. Esau's hatred sends Jacob into exile. Jacob is deceived in his turn by Laban, with a substituted sibling in the dark, and later by his own sons with a goat's blood on a coat. Rebekah's name drops out of the account. Whether she was right to do it, the Bible does not say; what it says is that the blessing went where God had said it would go, and that Isaac, once he understood, confirmed it and sent Jacob off with the blessing of Abraham.

What came before and what followed

Sarah has just died when Abraham sends for a wife from his own people, and the servant's mission is Abraham's last recorded act of arranging the future. Rebekah is the answer to a specific prayer at a specific well, and the chapter is the longest single account in Genesis, told twice over because the servant repeats it all to her family.

After her, the promise runs through Jacob, whom she sent to her brother's house. Laban's daughters Leah and Rachel are her nieces, and so Jacob's twelve sons are her grandsons on both sides. Her nurse Deborah stays with Jacob's household until her death, a small sign that Rebekah's people went with him even when she could not.

Where the rest of Scripture reaches back

Rebekah is named once outside Genesis. In Romans 9 Paul uses her twins to argue that God's purpose according to election stands: before they were born, before either had done good or evil, she was told the elder would serve the younger, and Malachi's Jacob have I loved is quoted beside it. Her account is the proof text that the promise is not inherited by birth order.

The scene at the well is echoed every time a bride is found by water in Scripture, and Christian readers since the early church have seen in Genesis 24 the Father sending the Spirit to bring a bride to the Son. Her I will go is often set beside Ruth's whither thou goest as the words of a woman who left her people for a promise.

Why it matters

Rebekah is the second matriarch, the woman through whom the promise passes from Isaac to Jacob, and the only one of the four who is told directly by God which son he has chosen. The oracle in Genesis 25 is spoken to her, not to Isaac, and her deception in chapter 27 is her way of making sure the blessing lands where the oracle said it would. The Bible neither praises the method nor reverses the result. Paul in Romans 9 goes back to that oracle to show that election rests on God's calling and not on works: when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, before the children had done any good or evil, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.

Her account at the well became the pattern for how a bride is found in Scripture. Jacob meets Rachel at a well, Moses meets Zipporah at a well, and Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well, and each scene echoes the first. Her readiness, I will go, is remembered as a picture of faith answering a call, and the church has long read Genesis 24 as an image of the Spirit fetching a bride for the Son.

4 songs

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

Genesis 23:1-25:18
Led to the Well
Play here
Open song page Read lyrics
Genesis 24
At the Well
Play here
Open song page Read lyrics
Genesis 25:19-28:22
The Blessing and the Ladder
Play here
Open song page Read lyrics
Genesis 25:19-34; 27
The Blessing Taken
Play here
Open song page Read lyrics

Nearby

All the people

Report an error on this page

Rebekah

The Account of Rebekah

Named at the end of a genealogy

Verse by verse

Genesis 22:20-23

Ten camels

Verse by verse

Genesis 24:15-27

I will go

Verse by verse

Genesis 24:28-61

Meeting Isaac

Verse by verse

Genesis 24:62-67

The oracle

Verse by verse

Genesis 25:21-26

A divided house

Verse by verse

Genesis 25:28

Sister, not wife

Verse by verse

Genesis 26:6-11

Grief of mind

Verse by verse

Genesis 26:34-35

Upon me be thy curse

Verse by verse

Genesis 27:1-17

Sending Jacob away

Verse by verse

Genesis 27:41-46

Her nurse, and her grave

Verse by verse

Genesis 35:8; 49:31

Reading Rebekah closely

The people she dealt with

The deception in chapter 27

What came before and what followed

Where the rest of Scripture reaches back

Why it matters

The music

Led to the Well

At the Well

The Blessing and the Ladder

The Blessing Taken

Nearby