A Biblical Source for Rebecca’s Age Upon Her Marriage to Isaac

בפרשתנו יש בסיס לשיטת הסדר עולם (שלא כדעת רש׳׳י) שרבקה אמנו נישאה ליצחק בגיל 14. יעקב אמר ש״אלכה ואראנו בטרם אמות,״ ואז היה בן ק׳׳ל, ואילו יוסף היה בן ל׳׳ט. למה ליה ליעקב להוסיף שהוא חש למותו? אלא כמאמר חז׳׳ל על החלטת יצחק לברך את עשָו דווקא לפני מותו: “אמר רבי יהושע בן קרחה: אם מגיע אדם לפרק אבותיו ידאג חמש שנים לפניהם וחמש לאחר כן, ויצחק היה בן מאה עשרים ושלש.” ושרה נפטרה בגיל קכ׳׳ז, ו״חמש שנים״ היינו הפרש של ד׳.  גם יעקב דאג אז. אין לומר שהוא דאג לפרק אביו יצחק, הלא הוא נפטר בגיל ק׳׳פ וליעקב נשארו עוד מ׳׳ו שנים לפני דאגה זו. אלא הוא דאג לגיל אמו, הוה אומר שהיא נפטרה בגיל קל׳׳ד, שהם ק׳׳ל בתוספת ד׳. וזה היה מיד לפני שיעקב חזר חברונה בגיל ק׳, כ׳ שנה לפני פטירת יצחק. ויש לתמוה קצת על הסדר עולם שכתב שרבקה נפטרה בגיל קל׳׳ג שיעקב היה אז בן צ׳׳ט, הלא ראינו שלוי היה גדול מיוסף ד׳ שנים, ובכיבוש שכם היה כבר בן י׳׳ג, ויוסף בן ט׳ ויעקב בן ק׳. ומכל מקום נמצא שרבקה היתה בת 34 בלידת יעקב, והיא התחתנה 20 שנה לפני זה.

See here and here for the general overview, although I would point out that this calculation is off by one year. I argue that Rebecca died at the age of 134, and when Jacob was 100, not 99. According to the view of the Seder Olam as brought in the sources, Rebecca was indeed married at 14, and therefore 34 years older than her twin sons, but, as can be seen from other verses and traditions, both Simon and Levi were both already of age, i.e. at least 13 years old, when they destroyed Shechem, and Levi, the younger of the two, was fours years older than Joseph, making Joseph at least 9 at the time, making Jacob, who was older than Joseph by 91 years, already 100 years old before Rebecca’s death. Consider that based on the account of the tribes’ births, Reuben was about six years older than Joseph, Simon five, Levi, four, and Judah, three, and that Rabbinic tradition holds that Levi was 43 years old when he moved to Egypt, when Joseph was 39.

Now, we can ask: Rashi at least has a way to establish Rebecca’s birth relative to that of her husband’s, by saying that the binding of Isaac, Rebecca’s birth, and Sarah’s death all coincided, but so far we are at a loss to find a verse or verses that either tell us how old Rebecca was at any of the known events according to the Seder Olam’s reckoning. Why not posit that she was 12 or 15 years old at the time of her marriage, or that she died at the age of 130 or 140 or any other age?

My proposal is based on Rabbi Joshua’s ben Korha’s teaching based on the other tradition regarding Isaac: he anticipated his own passing when he was within five years of the age of one his parents’ passing, i.e. four years before. Since Sarah died at the age of 127, Isaac started to anticipate his own death once he was aged 123, And that is his why he mentioned a number of times that he wished to finish the business of blessing Esau before he would die, even though it turns out he would live for another 57 years. What is the chronological anchor?

My proposal: in Genesis 45:28, Jacob, at the age of 130 and upon hearing that Joseph was alive in Egypt, exclaimed that “I will go and see him before I die.” Now, the classical commentators do not have much to say about these last few words, but I will ask, why was Jacob so apprehensive about his own death now? If he were concerned that he might die at an age similar to that of Isaac, he would only have to worry upon reaching the age of 176, another 46 years hence. It must be that he was now, at the age of 130, within five years of the age at which his mother had died, meaning that she must have died at the age of 134! Thus, we now know that Rebecca died at that age, and her death was when Jacob was still on his journey home to Hebron, and once again, when Levi had already attained the age of 13, Joseph was 9, and Jacob was 100.