06/08/2026
Woman of the Week: Deborah the Nurse. “Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan…And Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried under an oak below Bethel. So it was called Allon-bacuth [oak of weeping]” (Genesis 35:6-8).
Deborah the nurse is not the most famous Deborah in the Bible. Still, her brief memorial in Genesis is one of the Bible’s most intimate insights into the emotional lives of the matriarchs and patriarchs.
Deborah was the nurse of the matriarch Rebekah. When Rebekah leaves her mother’s household to marry Isaac, she does not go alone. In Genesis 24:59, we learn Rebekah’s nurse goes with her. We learn that nurse’s name in Genesis 35, when Rebekah’s children are grown and have children of their own. Apparently, Deborah the nurse witnessed it all, and her role in family life was so vital that her death warrants a mention in Genesis.
The Bible rarely details women’s deaths, much less their burials. Yet the story of the burial of a beloved nurse under an oak tree finds its way into our sacred text.
This week we remember Deborah the nurse. For the caregivers and the trees, we give thanks.
Artwork: “High Desert Oaks” by Julian Onderdonk. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.
