Rebecca

The Holy Righteous Rebecca is one of the matriarchs of the people of Israel, the wife of the patriarch Isaac and the mother of the twins Esau and Jacob. Her story is in the Book of Genesis. The Church remembers her among the righteous of the Old Testament, on the Sundays of the Holy Forefathers and of the Holy Fathers before the Nativity of the Lord, days without a fixed date.

Chosen for Isaac

Rebecca was the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, from Paddan-⁠aram, also called Aram-⁠naharaim, the sister of Laban and the granddaughter of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. After the death of Sarah, Abraham resolved to find his son Isaac a wife from his own kin, not from the daughters of the Canaanites. He sent to Mesopotamia his servant, whom tradition calls Eliezer, with rich gifts.

At the well of the city of Nahor, the servant prayed to the Lord to show him the chosen girl by her answer: the one whom he would ask for water and who would reply, drink, and I will water your camels too. Before he had finished praying, Rebecca came out and did exactly that. She was beautiful and, above all, kind and quick to serve. The servant gave her ornaments of gold, and Laban and Bethuel judged that the matter came from the Lord. When they asked whether she would go, she said: I will go.

Isaac, who was forty years old, had gone out into the field and saw her coming. Rebecca covered her face with her veil. Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, took her as wife and loved her, comforted after the death of his mother.

The twins

Rebecca remained childless for twenty years, then Isaac prayed and the Lord gave her two sons. When the children struggled within her, she inquired of the Lord, and He told her: two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger. The Apostle Paul recalls these words in the Epistle to the Romans as proof that God's choice does not depend on man's works (Romans 9:10-13).

Esau was born first, and Jacob followed, holding his heel. Isaac loved Esau, the hunter, but Rebecca loved Jacob, the quiet man who stayed among the tents. In Gerar, fearing the people, Isaac said that Rebecca was his sister, and King Abimelech discovered the truth. Esau's Hittite wives brought bitterness into their house.

The blessing

When Isaac grew old and blind, he told Esau to hunt and prepare a meal, so that he might bless him. Rebecca overheard and arranged for Jacob to come in his brother's place: she prepared two kids from the flock, dressed Jacob in Esau's clothes and put the skins of the kids on his arms. Jacob received the blessing of the firstborn.

When she learned that Esau meant to kill him, Rebecca sent Jacob to her brother Laban in Haran for a few days, hoping that Esau's anger would pass. The books do not say that she saw him again. Laban's daughters, Leah and Rachel, became Jacob's wives. Her nurse Deborah died later near Bethel and was buried under an oak (Genesis 35:8).

Her end

Genesis does not say when she died. It says only that she was buried beside Isaac in the cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, where Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Leah also lie. Jewish tradition adds details about her age and the wonders of her tent, but Scripture does not give them. Some scholars doubt her historicity, but for the Church she remains an ancestress of Christ according to the flesh.