Rachel
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In the book of Genesis, one of Jacob's two wives. Jacob was forced to serve her father, Laban, for seven years to win her, but at the end of that time he was tricked into marrying her sister, Leah. He was then allowed to marry Rachel as well, in return for seven more years of labour. At first childless, Rachel eventually gave birth to Joseph, and she died giving birth to Benjamin.
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Rachel
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Rachel
Wife of Jacob; one of the Matriarchs of Israel. She was the younger daughter of Jacob's uncle Laban. Jacob met her by a well and wished to marry her. Following trickery by Laban, who substituted his older daughter, Leah, for Rachel on Jacob's wedding night, Jacob was forced to work another seven years in addition to the first seven he had agreed to work for Rachel's hand. When Jacob fled from the house of his father-in-law, Laban, Rachel stole Laban's graven images. Laban pursued Jacob and his camp and searched it for these graven images, but Rachel successfully concealed them from her father.
Rachel is described as being, "of comely appearance and beautiful" (Gen. 29:17); she was Jacob's favorite wife. When Jacob finally met his brother Esau, after a 20-year separation, still fearing his wrath, he placed his concubines with their children first in his camp, followed by Leah and her children, and finally Rachel with Joseph. Evidently this was to protect Rachel and her son. It was in giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, just outside Bethlehem that Rachel died.
The traditional site of Rachel's tomb has drawn pilgrims at least since the Byzantine era and has been a favorite subject of Jewish folk art. Women, especially those who are barren, come to pray at Rachel's tomb, for it is related that she was barren for a long time before giving birth to her children.
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("ewe")
Laban's younger daughter and Jacob's second, but favored, wife.
Jacob first met Rachel by a well. Struck by her beauty, he fell in love with her, and pledged seven years of labor to her father as her brideprice. Having completed his term, Jacob was tricked into taking Rachel's elder sister Leah instead, but he then covenanted to work a further seven years to gain Rachel, and ultimately married her. However, Rachel remained barren while Leah was fertile (Gen chap. 29). After Rachel cried that she would die if she had no children, she was blessed with her first son, Joseph (Gen 30:22-24), and a second, Benjamin, at whose birth she died (Gen 35:16-18). Before she had children of her own, she had emulated Sarah and Leah, acquiring legal sons by giving Jacob her handmaid Bilhah, who bore for him two sons, Dan and Naphtali (Gen 30:3-8).
Although socially inferior as the younger sister and chronologically second to marry, and despite her persistent barrenness, Rachel always enjoyed her husband's love and preferential treatment. More often than not when she and Leah are mentioned together, her name comes first (e.g. Gen 31:4). Fearing hostility in his forthcoming encounter with Esau, Jacob ordered Rachel and her household to be stationed at the rear of the column to reduce the danger of harm to her (Gen 33:2). Rachel was the more spirited of the two sisters, as borne out by her successful removal of Laban's household gods (teraphim) prior to departure for Canaan, and her subsequent imprudent lie to her father about the affair (Gen 31:34ff). In the blessing for brides (Ruth 4:11) Rachel is named first although her sister's nominal domestic status and fertility ought to have gained her that position.
Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem and an ancient site became revered as her tomb. In biblical times she was already perceived as the tortured mother, whose untimely departure caused her to grieve continuously for her sons. As Jeremiah says: "Hark, lamentation is heard in Ramah, and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her sons. She refuses to be comforted�" (Jer 31:15; cf Matt 2:16-18 in connection with the massacre of the infants by Herod). Rachel is regarded as the fourth matriarch of the Jewish people.
Concordance
Gen 29:6, 9-12, 16-18, 20,25, 28-31; 30:1-2, 6-8,14-15, 22, 25; 31:4, 14, 19,32-34; 33:1-2,7; 35:16, 19-20, 24-25; 46:19, 22, 25; 48:7. Ruth 4:11. I Sam 10:2. Jer 31:15. Matt 2:18
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Rachel
American Heritage Dictionary:
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Ra·chel
In the Bible, the second wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
[Hebrew rāḥēl, ewe.]
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The second wife of Jacob (see Jacob and Esau). She was sterile for many years, but eventually had two sons: Joseph (see Joseph and his brothers) and Benjamin.
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Rachel
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This article improperly uses one or more religious texts as primary sources without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them. Please help improve this article by adding references to reliable secondary sources, with multiple points of view. |
This article is about the biblical character. For other uses, see Rachel (disambiguation).
| Saint Rachel | |
|---|---|
 Rachel and Jacob by William Dyce |
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| Holy Matriarch | |
| Born | Paddan-aram |
| Died | Canaan |
| Honored in | Judaism Islam Christianity |
| Major shrine | Rachel's Tomb |
| Feast | Roman Catholicism: 1 November[1] Orthodox Church: Sunday before Christmas |
Rachel (Hebrew: רחל, Modern Raḥel Tiberian Rāḫēl, Rāḥēl ISO 259-3 Raḥel ; meaning "ewe"[2]) as described in the Bible, is a prophet and the favorite wife of Jacob, one of the three Biblical Patriarchs, and mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was the daughter of Laban and the younger sister of Leah, Jacob's first wife. Jacob was her first cousin, and she was the youngest niece of Rebecca.
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Marriage to Jacob
Rachel is first mentioned in the Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is watering her lamb. He had traveled a great distance to find his mother's brother, Laban. Rebekah had sent him there to be safe from his furious 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 that Leah, Rachel's older sister, had been substituted for Rachel. Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful," "Leah had tender eyes"[3]. 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.
After Leah had given birth to four sons, Rachel remained unable to conceive. She became jealous of Leah 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 and Naphtali). Leah responds by offering her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob, and names and raises the two sons (Gad and Asher) that Zilpah bears. According to some commentaries, Bilhah and Zilpah, are actually half-sisters of Leah and Rachel.[4]
After Leah conceived again, Rachel was finally blessed with a son, Joseph, who would become Jacob's favorite child.
Death and burial
After Joseph's birth, Jacob decided to return to the land of Canaan with his family. 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 chased him and accused him of stealing his idols. Indeed, Rachel had taken her father's idols, hidden them inside her camel's seat cushion, and sat upon them. Not knowing that the idols 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, but the curse Jacob had pronounced came true shortly thereafter.
Near Ephrath, Rachel went into a difficult labor with her second son, Benjamin. The midwife tells her in the middle of the birth that her child is a boy.[5] Before she died, Rachel named her son Ben 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 of Paddan Aram; or it could mean "son of my days," as Benjamin was born in Jacob's old age.
Rachel was buried by Jacob on the road to Efrat, just outside Bethlehem.[6] Today a site claimed to be Rachel's Tomb, located between Bethlehem and the Israeli settlement of Gilo, is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year.[7]
Rachel's children
Rachel's son, Joseph, is destined to be the leader of Israel's tribes between exile and nationhood. This role is exemplified in the Biblical story of Joseph, who prepared the way in Egypt for his family's exile there,[8] and in the future figure of Mashiach ben Yosef (Messiah, son of Joseph), who will fight the apocalyptic Wars of Gog and Magog, preparing the way for the kingship of Mashiach ben David (Messiah, son of David) and the messianic age.[9][10] She also had a second son named Benjamin; she died during labor with him.
Additional references in the Bible
- In Jeremiah 31:15, the prophet speaks of 'Rachel weeping for her children' (KJV). This is interpreted in Judaism as Rachel crying for an end to her descendants' sufferings and exiles following the destruction by the Babylonians of the First Temple in ancient Jerusalem. According to the Midrash, Rachel spoke before God: "If I, a mere mortal, was prepared not to humiliate my sister and was willing to take a rival into my home, how could You, the eternal, compassionate God, be jealous of idols, which have no true existence, that were brought into Your home (the Temple in Jerusalem)? Will You cause my children to be exiled on this account?" God accepted her plea and promised that, eventually, the exile would end and the Jews would return to their land.[11]
- In the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew (part of the New Testament), this reference from Jeremiah is interpreted as a prediction of the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great in his attempt to kill the young Jesus. The Jeremaic prophecy is the inspiration behind the medieval dramatic cycle Ordo Rachelis, concerned with the infancy of Jesus.
- Mordechai, the hero of the Book of Esther, and Queen Esther herself, were descendants of Rachel through her son Benjamin. The Book of Esther details Mordechai's lineage as "Mordechai the son of Yair, the son of Shimi, the son of Kish, a man of the right (ish yemini)" (Esther 2:5). The designation of ish yemini refers to his membership in the Tribe of Benjamin (ben yamin, son of the right). The rabbis comment that Esther's ability to remain silent in the palace of Ahasuerus, resisting the king's pressure to reveal her ancestry, was inherited from her ancestor Rachel, who remained silent even when Laban brought out Leah to marry Jacob.
Islamic view of Rachel
Rachel is revered in Islam, and while not specifically referred to in the Quran, she is known by references to her in the collection of stories known as Qisas Al-Anbiya (Tales of the Prophets or Lives of the Prophets).[12] The story of how Jacob fell in love with Rachel is told in the Qisas Al-Anbiya, and her beauty is described. Her role as mother to Joseph and Benjamin is the central theme of these narratives on her life.[13]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jacob and Rachel |
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Look up Rachel or רחל in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
References
- ^ "Rachel the Matriarch". Star Quest Production Network. http://saints.sqpn.com/rachel-the-matriarch/. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
- ^ Campbell, Mike Behind the Name
- ^ "Leah had tender eyes" (Hebrew: ועיני לאה רכות) (Genesis 29:17). It is debated as to whether the adjective "tender" (רכות) should be taken to mean "delicate and soft" or "weary." Some translations say that it may have meant blue or light colored eyes. Some say that Leah spent most of her time weeping and praying to God to change her destined mate. Thus the Torah describes her eyes as "soft" from weeping.
- ^ Ginzberg, Louis (1909) The Legends of the Jews, Volume I, Chapter VI: Jacob, at sacred-texts.com
- ^ Reisenberger, Azila, "Medical history: Biblical texts reveal compelling mysteries," Newsroom and Publications at the University of Cape Town website
- ^ "Rachel" at http://jewishencyclopedia.com
- ^ "Kever Rachel Trip Breaks Barriers" by Israel National News Staff at israelnationalnews.com, Published: 11/14/05
- ^ "Joseph" at jewishencyclopedia.com
- ^ Davidiy, Yair, "Moshiach Ben Yoseph," at britam.org
- ^ "The Messiah of Judaism," at truthnet.org
- ^ Weisberg, Chana, "Rachel - Biblical Women" at chabad.org
- ^ Strickert, Fred (2007). Rachel weeping: Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the Fortress Tomb. Liturgical Press. p. 48.
- ^ Strickert, Fred (2007). Rachel weeping: Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the Fortress Tomb. Liturgical Press. pp. 48–53.
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