Rebekah

Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• Rebecca

Etymology

From Hebrew רִבְקָה (Riḇqāh, “enchantingly beautiful, captivating, snare”)

Proper noun

Rebekah

1. (biblical) The sister of Laban and Isaac's wife, mother to Jacob and Esau.
2. A female given name much more often spelled Rebecca.

Quotations

• 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Genesis 25:20

  And Isaac was fortie yeeres old when hee tooke Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the ſiſter to Laban the Syrian.

• 1611 — King James Version of the Bible, Romans 9:10, 12

  And not onely this, but when Rebecca also had conceiued by one, euen by our father Isaac, [...] It was ſaid vnto her, The elder ſhall ſerue the yonger.

Translations

sister of Laban and wife to Isaac

• Danish: Rebecca (da)
• Dutch: Rebekka (nl)
• Estonian: Rebeka (et)
• Finnish: Rebekka (fi)
• French: Rébecca (fr) f
• German: Rebekka (de) f
• Greek: Ρεβέκκα (el) (Revekka) f

  Ancient: Ῥεβέκκα (Rhebekka) f

• Hawaiian: Rebeka
• Hebrew: רִבְקָה (he) (Riḇqāh) f
• Latin: Rebecca (la) f
• Norwegian: Rebekka (no)
• Spanish: Rebeca (es) f
• Swedish: Rebecka (sv)

Usage notes

The spelling Rebecca originates from the Latin Vulgate, which from the 4th century A.D. was the Bible that was used for centuries in Western Christianity. When the King James Version appeared in 1611, the spelling Rebekah was used in the Old Testament, but the spelling Rebecca was retained in the New Testament.