Rebekah was Isaac’s wife and Jacob and Esau’s mother. In Genesis, Isaac’s father, Abraham had been looking for a wife for his son Isaac. He sent his servant to the city of Nahor to find her. The servant came to a well and prayed that the next young woman who came to the well and gave him water would be Isaac’s wife. As he was praying, Rebekah came, gave the servant and his camels a drink and as a result because his wife.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately after many years of marriage, Rebekah and Isaac did not have any children. Isaac prayed for God’s blessing and Rebekah became pregnant with the first twins mentioned in the Bible, Jacob and Esau. Even before they were born, Rebekah could feel the twins fighting with one another in her womb. She asked God why and the Lord told her that two nations were inside her and they were at odds with one another.<\/p>\n
Esau was born first and he became Isaac\u2019s favorite son. Rebekah favored Jacob.<\/p>\n
Because Esau was firstborn, he was entitled to receive the birthright but Jacob tricked Esau into selling him his birthright for a bowl of stew. Later, as Isaac was dying and could not see, Rebekah helped Jacob deceive Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau using goatskins to imitate Esau’s hairy arms. (This scene is depicted in the painting above Isaac Blessing Jacob, by Jusepe de Ribera.)<\/p>\n
Many years later, Esau was able to forgive Jacob. When Rebekah died, she was buried in the family tomb, a cave near Mamre in Canaan, the resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and her daughter-in-law Leah.<\/p>\n