Rebecca

The NT and modern spelling (from the Gr. 'Peli^KKa) of the name which is spelt in OT Rebkkah. The only occurrence of ' Rebecca ' is in Ro 9i» (both AV and RV). REBEKAH, in Ro 9'" Rebecca (nijn^, i.e. niblikdh ; in Arab, a card with luops for tyinn lamlis or kids, from rahaka, to tie or bind fust ; LXX and NT 'Pe/Senrra, Vulg. .RcAc^ca).— Daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor and Milcah, and conse- quently great-niece of Abraham (Gn 22-"- ■'''); sister of Laban, and subsequently wife of Liaac. The idyllic story of the circumstances through which Rebekah became Isaac's wife is told by J, in his usual picturesque style, and at the same time with stress on the providence which overruled them (vv.""- " [lit. 'cause it to meet — i.e. ha]i])en success- fully—before me,' so 27'-"] '•'• '"■ ^- "■ "• "''% in Gn 24. In accordance with Eastern custom (Mariuaoe, vol. iii. p. 270), the betrothal is arranged with- out Isaac's own personal intervention : Abraham sends his principal and confidential servant (v.) — called in E (15-'-) Eliezer — to find a wife for his son, not from among the Canaanites around him, but from his own relations in 'the land of his nativity': the servant proceeds accordingly to Aramnaharaim, to the 'city of Nahor' (i e. Haran : cf. Laban, vol. iii. p. 13'') ; as he reachef RECAH RECHAB, RECIIABITES 203 the well outside the city (v."), he prays for a sign by which he may know Isaac's destined bride ; and the damsel wno fullils it proves to be Rebekah. Lalian and Bethuel, satisfied bj' the evidence of their uncle's prosperity (vv.'-^-^-"; cf. v.'" [RVj, V.''), and of Isaacs prospective wealtli (v.^''), and reco^^nizing in what had happened the hand of Providence (vv.'- " ""', — 'spoken,' viz. by tlie facts), agree to the servant's proposal ; Rebekah herself consents to return willi liim (v."'-), and so she becomes Isaac's wife, consoling him after his mother's death (v.^). Like Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah, Rebekah was at first barren ; and her barrenness ceased only after Isaac's entreaty ('2o-'), — according to the chronology of P (25'- -"■), — "20 years after her marriage. On the oracle, received by her (2o^), shortly before the birth of her twin sons, see JACOB, vol. ii. p. 526. The ne.\t incident in Rebekah's life that we read of is on the occasion of Isaac's visit to Gerar (26»-"), when, fearing lest her beauty (cf. 24'«) might attract admirers, and his own life be en- dangered in consequence, he passed her off as his sister (cf. tin 20; and ISAAC, vol. ii. p. 484''). •lacob was Rebekah's favourite son (25^) ; and Gn 27 (JE) tells of the deed of treachery by which the ambitious and designing mother, 'sacrificing husband, elder son, principle, her own soul, for an idolized person,' secured for him his father's blessing (see more fully, on tliis narrative, Jacob, vol. ii. p. 527). After this, she prompted Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban, in order to escape Esau's vengeance, w."-" : in the paragraph from P which follows (27'"^-2S''), however, the motive upon wliich she urges his visit to ^aran, is that he may obtain a wile, not, like Esau (cf. 20^- • P), from among the natives of Canaan, but from among Laban's daughters (see, furtlier, ibid.). An isolated, and very possibly misplaced, notice (35") states that Deborah, Rebekah s nurse, who had accompanied her long before from ^aran (24'-'), died alter Jacob's return to Canaan, and was buried below Retliel. The death of Rebekah herself is not specially mentioned ; but in 49^' (I') she is said to have been buried in the cave of Maclijielah. S. R. Driver.