REBECCA. — Daughter of Bethuel, granddaughter of Nahor (Gen. 22:23) and wife of Isaac (Hebr. Ribhqâh). According to the prayer made to God by Eliezer (q.v.), she courteously offered him a drink, watered his camels, and invited him to stay as a guest; when asked to be a wife for Isaac, she gladly consented and left Mesopotamia (Gen. 24:10–67). After twenty years of barrenness, she bore the twins Esau and Jacob (ibid. 25:19–26; cf. Rom. 9:10).
At Gerar, Jahweh providentially protected her from the Philistines (Gen. 26:6–11). She advised and directed her beloved Jacob to obtain the paternal blessing by stealth, thus saving him from Esau’s wrath and sending him to Haran to her brother Laban (ibid. 27). She probably did not live to see Jacob’s return (cf. ibid. 35:27); she was buried in Hebron in the family tomb (ibid. 49:31).