Rachel #36

Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban, the favorite wife of Jacob, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Her story is told in Genesis 29 to 35, and she is remembered both for the love that Jacob showed her and for the sorrow that marked her life.

Biblical Significance

Jacob meets Rachel at a well near Haran, where she has come to water her father’s sheep. The text says that Jacob kissed her and wept aloud (Genesis 29:9-12). She is described as “beautiful and well favoured,” and Jacob agrees to work seven years for her hand, years that “seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her” (Genesis 29:17-20). On the wedding night, Laban gives him her older sister Leah in her place, and Jacob then works another seven years for Rachel (Genesis 29:21-30).

Rachel is barren while Leah has children, and she becomes desperate, saying to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.” Jacob answers with anger, and Rachel gives her servant Bilhah to him as a surrogate, a practice like the one Sarah followed with Hagar (Genesis 30:1-8). Rivalry between the sisters, including the episode of the mandrakes, marks these chapters (Genesis 30:14-16). At last God “remembered Rachel,” and she bears Joseph, saying, “The LORD shall add to me another son” (Genesis 30:22-24). When the family leaves Laban, Rachel steals her father’s household gods, hides them under her camel saddle, and claims she cannot rise because of her monthly period (Genesis 31:19, 34-35).

Death and Burial

Near Ephrath, which the text identifies as Bethlehem, Rachel goes into a hard labor with her second son. She names the child Ben-oni, “son of my sorrow,” and dies, but Jacob renames him Benjamin, “son of the right hand.” Jacob sets up a pillar over her tomb (Genesis 35:16-20). Her burial place is on the road rather than in the family tomb at Machpelah, a detail Jacob later recalls with sorrow (Genesis 48:7).

Legacy

Jeremiah pictures Rachel weeping for her children in Ramah as the people of Israel go into exile: “Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted” (Jeremiah 31:15). The same prophecy goes on to promise that they will return, with hope for their future. Matthew quotes it in connection with the killing of the infants of Bethlehem by Herod (Matthew 2:16-18). Rachel and Leah together are named in the blessing at the gate in Ruth as those “which two did build the house of Israel” (Ruth 4:11). Through Joseph and Benjamin, she is the ancestor of some of Israel’s most prominent tribes, including Ephraim and Manasseh.