Rebekah

In the retellings of the patriarchal stories found within Jubilees and Jasher, the figure of Isaac's wife emerges as a pivotal agent in preserving the covenant line descending from Abraham. Jubilees 19 recounts her selection from the household of Bethuel as a deliberate choice aligned with Abraham's instructions to his servant, underscoring her kinship ties that reinforce the purity of the chosen seed. This account expands the Genesis framework by emphasizing her immediate acceptance into the family and Abraham's explicit blessing upon her, framing her not merely as a spouse but as an essential link ensuring the continuation of the promises amid surrounding nations. Her influence sharpens in the drama surrounding the transmission of the blessing to the younger son. Both Jubilees 24-26 and Jasher 26-28 portray her as actively discerning the future destinies of her twin sons, favoring the one whose path aligns with righteousness and guiding events that secure the primogeniture rights through strategic intervention. These texts add layers of dialogue and motivation absent from earlier sources, presenting her actions as informed by prophetic insight rather than mere preference, thereby highlighting themes of divine election that resonate across the pseudepigraphal corpus. Further passages in Jubilees 35 detail her final instructions and deathbed counsel to both sons, urging reconciliation while affirming the younger's preeminence, a scene that underscores her enduring authority within the household. Jasher extends this with accounts of her travels and intercessions, enriching her portrayal as a matriarch whose decisions shape generational outcomes. Within the wider Enochian and Jubilean traditions, such expansions illustrate how individual fidelity intersects with celestial plans for Israel's lineage, offering readers insight into the human dimensions of sacred history.

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Biography

Occupation: Wife of Isaac
Era: Patriarchal

Patriarch Jubilees Jasher

Did You Know?

Rebekah was chosen as Isaac's wife by the sign at the well.

She favored Jacob and helped him secure the blessing from Isaac.

Key Chapters

The Book of Jasher 24 Abraham Purchases a Burial Place. Isaac sent to the House of Shem and Eber to Learn the... 2 min read Abraham's servant finds Rebekah at the well by the sign of giving water to the c... The Book of Jubilees 26 Jacob Obtains the Blessing 7 min read Rebekah overhears Isaac planning to bless Esau. She instructs Jacob to disguise ...

Key Passages

Rebekah Chosen as Wife

The Book of Jasher 24:1-30

Abraham's servant finds Rebekah at the well by the sign of giving water to the camels. She agrees to go with him to marry Isaac.

A¹nd they said to Noah, We are ready to return to the Lord; only open for us that we may live and not die.

² And Noah answered them, saying, Behold now that you see the trouble of your souls, you wish to return to the Lord; why did you not return during these hundred and twenty years, which the Lord granted you as the determined period? ³ But now you come and tell me this on account of the troubles of your souls, now also the Lord will not listen to you, neither will he give ear to you on this day, so that you will not now succeed in your wishes. ⁴ And the sons of men approached in order to break into the ark, to come in on account of the rain, for they could not bear the rain upon them. ⁵ And the Lord sent all the beasts and animals that stood round the ark. And the beasts overpowered them and drove them from that place, and every man went his way and they again scattered themselves upon the face of the earth. ⁶ And the rain was still descending upon the earth, and it descended forty days and forty nights, and the waters prevailed greatly upon the earth; and all flesh that was upon the earth or in the waters died, whether men, animals, beasts, creeping things or birds of the air, and there only remained Noah and those that were with him in the ark. ⁷ And the waters prevailed and they greatly increased upon the earth, and they lifted up the ark and it was raised from the earth. ⁸ And the ark floated upon the face of the waters, and it was tossed upon the waters so that all the living creatures within were turned about like pottage in a cauldron. ⁹ And great anxiety seized all the living creatures that were in the ark, and the ark was like to be broken. 30.

Read full chapter: The Book of Jasher 24 →

Rebekah Favors Jacob

The Book of Jubilees 26:1-35

Rebekah overhears Isaac planning to bless Esau. She instructs Jacob to disguise himself and brings him the blessing of the firstborn instead.

A¹nd in the seventh year of this week Isaac called Esau, his elder Son, and said unto him: ' I am old, my son, and behold my eyes are dim in seeing, and I know not the day of my death. And now take thy hunting weapons thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and hunt and catch me (venison), my son, and make me savoury meat, such as my soul loveth, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless thee before I die.' But Rebecca heard Isaac speaking to Esau. 4,5 And Esau went forth early to the field to hunt and catch and bring home to his father. And Rebecca called Jacob, her son, and said unto him: 'Behold, I heard Isaac, thy father, speak unto Esau, thy brother, saying: Hunt for me, and make me savoury meat, and bring (it) to me that

² I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before I die. And now, my son, obey my voice in that which I command thee: Go to thy flock and fetch me two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, such as he loves, and thou shalt bring (it) to thy father that he may eat and bless thee before the Lord before he die, and that thou mayst be blessed.' And Jacob said to Rebecca his mother: 'Mother, I shall not withhold anything which my father would eat, and which would please him: only I fear, my mother, that he will recognise my voice and wish to touch me. And thou knowest that I am smooth, and Esau, my brother, is hairy, and I shall appear before his eyes as an evildoer, and shall do a deed which he had not commanded me, and he will be wroth with me, and I shall bring upon myself a curse, and not a blessing.' And Rebecca, his mother, said unto him: 'Upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice.' And Jacob obeyed the voice of Rebecca, his mother, and went and fetched two good and fat kids of the goats, and brought them to his mother, and his mother made them ~savoury meat~ such as he loved. And Rebecca took the goodly rainment of Esau, her elder son, which was with her in the house, and she clothed Jacob, her younger son, (with them), and she put the skins of the kids upon his hands and on the exposed parts of his neck. And she gave the meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. And Jacob went in to his father and said: 'I am thy son: I have done according as thou badest me: arise and sit and eat of that which I have caught, father, that thy soul 14,15 may bless me.' And Isaac said to his son: 'How hast thou found so quickly, my son 'And Jacob said: 'Because (the Lord thy God caused me to find.' And Isaac said unto him: Come near, that ³ I may feel thee, my son, if thou art my son Esau or not.' And Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him and said: 'The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau,' and he discerned him not, because it was a dispensation from heaven to remove his power of perception and ⁴ Isaac discerned not, for his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's, so that he blessed him. And he said: 'Art thou my son Esau ' and he said: 'I am thy son': and he said, 'Bring near to me that ⁵ I may eat of that which thou hast caught, my son, that my soul may bless thee.' And he brought near to him, and he did eat, and he brought him wine and he drank. And Isaac, his father, said unto him: 'Come near and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his raiment, and he blessed him and said: 'Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a (full) field which the Lord hath blessed. ⁶ And may the Lord give thee of the dew of heaven And of the dew of the earth, and plenty of corn and oil: Let nations serve thee, And peoples bow down to thee. ⁷ Be lord over thy brethren, And let thy mother's sons bow down to thee; And may all the blessings wherewith the Lord hath blessed me and blessed Abraham, my father; Be imparted to thee and to thy seed for ever: Cursed be he that curseth thee, And blessed be he that blesseth thee.' ⁸ And it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing his son Jacob, and Jacob had gone forth from Isaac his father he hid himself and Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. And he also made savoury meat, and brought (it) to his father, and said unto his father: 'Let my father arise, and eat of my venison that thy soul may bless me.' And Isaac, his father, said unto him: 'Who art thou 'And he said unto him: 'I am thy first born, thy son Esau: I have done as thou hast commanded me.' And Isaac was very greatly astonished, and said: 'Who is he that hath hunted and caught and brought (it) to me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him: ⁹ (and) he shall be blessed, and all his seed for ever.' And it came to pass when Esau heard the words of his father Isaac that he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said unto his father: ¹⁰ 'Bless me, (even) me also, father.' And he said unto him: 'Thy brother came with guile, and hath taken away thy blessing.' And he said: 'Now I know why his name is named Jacob: behold, he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birth-right, and now he hath taken away ¹¹ 'Behold, I have made him thy lord, And all his brethren have I given to him for servants, And with plenty of corn and wine and oil have I strengthened him: And what now shall I do for thee, my son' ¹² And Esau said to Isaac, his father: 'Hast thou but one blessing, O father Bless me, (even) me also, father: ' ¹³ And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. And Isaac answered and said unto him: 'Behold, far from the dew of the earth shall be thy dwelling, And far from the dew of heaven from above. ¹⁴ And by thy sword wilt thou live, And thou wilt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass when thou becomest great, And dost shake his yoke from off thy neck, Thou shalt sin a complete sin unto death, And thy seed shall be rooted out from under heaven.' ¹⁵ And Esau kept threatening Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him, and he: said in his heart: 'May the days of mourning for my father now come, so that I may slay my brother Jacob.'

Read full chapter: The Book of Jubilees 26 →