Rebekah

Family: Nahor's family · Role: daughter of Bethuel · First appears: Genesis 22

Rebekah was the daughter of Bethuel, Milcah, and Nahor, and the sister of Laban. In Genesis 24, Laban and Bethuel approved her marriage to Isaac as proceeding from the LORD; when asked whether she would leave with Abrahamsservant, she answered, “I will go.” She was sent away from Mesopotamia with her nurse and the servant’s men, and at eventide Isaac took her as his wife, loved her, and was comforted after his mother’s death. Laban and Milcah blessed her as their sister, saying, “be thou the mother of thousands of millions.”

When her days were fulfilled in Genesis 25, Rebekah gave birth to the twins Esau and Jacob, and she loved Jacob. In Genesis 26, Esau’s marriages to Judith and Bashemath were a grief to Rebekah and Isaac; at Gerar, Abimelech discovered that she was Isaac’s wife. In Genesis 27, Rebekah told Jacob to obey her command and flee to Laban in Haran until Esau’s anger subsided. In Genesis 35, Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried beneath Bethel.