Rachel | |
|---|---|
| רָחֵל | |
.png) Jacob and Rachel (1625) byTanzio da Varallo | |
| Born | |
| Died | |
| Resting place | Rachel's Tomb,Bethlehem |
| Spouse | Jacob |
| Children | |
| Father | Laban |
| Relatives | See list
|
Rachel (Hebrew:רָחֵל,romanized: Rāḥēl,lit. 'ewe')[1] was aBiblical figure, the favorite ofJacob's two wives, and the mother ofJoseph andBenjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of thetribes of Israel. Rachel's father wasLaban. Her older sister wasLeah, Jacob's first wife. Her auntRebecca was Jacob's mother.[2]
Rachel is first mentioned in theHebrew Bible inGenesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her father's flock. She was the second daughter ofLaban, Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin.[2] Jacob had traveled a great distance to find Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his angry twin brother,Esau.
During Jacob's stay, he fell in love with Rachel and agreed to work seven years for Laban in return for her hand in marriage. On the night of the wedding, the bride was veiled and Jacob did not notice thatLeah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful", "Leah had tender eyes".[a] Later Jacob confronted Laban, who excused his own deception by insisting that the older sister should marry first. He assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her. When God "saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb" (Genesis 29:31),[4] and she gave birth to four sons.
Rachel, likeSarah and Rebekah, remained unable to conceive. According to biblical scholarTikva Frymer-Kensky, "The infertility of the matriarchs has two effects: it heightens the drama of the birth of the eventual son, markingIsaac,Jacob, andJoseph as special; and it emphasizes that pregnancy is an act of God."[5]
Rachel became jealous ofLeah and gave Jacob her maidservant,Bilhah, to be a surrogate mother for her. Bilhah gave birth to two sons that Rachel named and raised (Dan andNaphtali). Leah responded by offering her handmaidZilpah to Jacob, and named and raised the two sons (Gad andAsher) that Zilpah bore. According to some commentaries, Bilhah and Zilpah were half-sisters of Leah and Rachel.[6] After Leah conceived again, Rachel finally had a son,Joseph,[2] who would become Jacob's favorite child.
Rachel's sonJoseph became a prominent figure in Israelite tradition. This pre-eminence emerges in the Biblical story of Joseph,[7]who prepared the way inEgypt for his family's exile there.[8]
After Joseph's birth, Jacob decided to return to the land ofCanaan with his family.[2] Fearing that Laban would deter him, he fled with his two wives (Leah and Rachel) and twelve children without informing his father-in-law. Laban pursued him and accused him of stealing histeraphim. Indeed, Rachel had taken her father's teraphim, hidden them inside her camel's seat cushion, and sat upon them. Laban had neglected to give his daughters their inheritance (Genesis 31:14–16).[5]
Not knowing that the teraphim were in his wife's possession, Jacob pronounced a curse on whoever had them: "With whoever you will find your gods, he will not live" (Genesis 31:32). Laban proceeded to search the tents of Jacob and his wives, but when he came to Rachel's tent, she told her father, "Let not my lord be angered that I cannot rise up before you, for the way of women is upon me" (Genesis 31:35). Laban left her alone, and the teraphim were not discovered.
NearEphrath, Rachel went into a difficultlabor with her second son,Benjamin. The midwife told her in the middle of the birth that her child was a boy.[9] Before she died, Rachel named her sonBen Oni ("son of my mourning"), but Jacob called him Ben Yamin (Benjamin).Rashi explains that Ben Yamin either means "son of the right" (i.e., "south"), since Benjamin was the only one of Jacob's sons born in Canaan, which is to the south ofPaddan Aram; or it could mean "son of my days", as Benjamin was born in Jacob's old age.
Biblical scholarship distinguishes between two narratives for the site of Rachel's burial, a northern one suggesting a site north of Jerusalem nearRamah (modernAl-Ram), and a southern one placing it close to Bethlehem.
Rachel was buried on the road toEphrath, just outsideBethlehem,[10] and not in the ancestral tomb atMachpelah (where her husband Jacob and her sister Leah were buried).Rachel's Tomb, located betweenBethlehem and theIsraeli settlement ofGilo, is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year.[11]
1 Samuel 10:2 places Rachel's tomb "atZelzah on the border ofBenjamin."
A major theme in Jewish tradition is that of Rachel weeping for her children inExile. This is based in part on a biblical passage (Jer. 31:15–17): "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuseth to be comforted for her children, because they are not."[13] According to the rabbis, Jacob buried Rachel on the side of the road for the purpose of her future position to plead on behalf of the Jewish people.[14]
Despite not being named in theQur'an, Rachel (Arabic:رَحِـيْـل,Rāḥīl) is honored inIslam as the wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph,[15] who are frequently mentioned by name in theQur'an asYaʿqūb (Arabic:يَـعْـقُـوْب) andYūsuf (Arabic:يُـوْسُـف), respectively.[16][17]
Media related toRachel (Biblical figure) at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition ofרחל at Wiktionary| International | |
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