RACHEL (PERSON) . Jacob’s second and favorite wife, mother of Joseph and Benjamin, youngest daughter of Laban (Rebekah’s brother) and sister of Leah (Jacob’s first wife). Therefore, Rachel and Leah are also Jacob’s first cousins, since his father (Laban) and Jacob’s mother (Rebekah) are brother and sister. On the father’s side, they are second cousins once removed, since Abraham and Nahor are brothers. See Fig. RAC.01.
Rachel’s story is a story of love and devotion unparalleled in biblical narrative. At Rebekah’s suggestion, Abraham sends his son Jacob to Paddan-aram (Haran) to the house of his father Bethuel to get one of Laban’s daughters as a wife (Genesis 27:46-28:5). Jacob rushes off on this journey because he had incurred the murderous hatred of his older brother Esau by securing the birthright for himself through deception (Genesis 27). However, God reinforces Jacob’s blessing in a dream vision at Bethel, in which God promises Jacob:
The land on which you are lying I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring will be like the dust of the earth. . . and for you. . . all the families of the earth will bless themselves (Gen 28:14).
Rachel then appears to Jacob at a well, and here begins Jacob’s personal story of deep emotional attachment and love for her. Jacob initiates all the action: he alone removes the heavy stone to water Laban’s flock, kisses Rachel and cries, overwhelmed with emotion (Gn 29: 9-11). Only then is Rachel introduced as a relative of her father (v 12). Rachel watches passively until then, finally running to tell her father, Laban. The narrative is fast and precise. The symbolic action of Jacob rolling the stone from the well is thematically indicative of the many obstacles he must later overcome to obtain the woman he loves (seven years of servitude culminating in Leah’s replacement as first wife, then an additional seven years of life). I work for Rachel). Another obstacle to Rachel’s position as a wife is that she has been childless for many years. Ironically, she dies at the birth of their second child, leaving Jacob helpless and saddened, a pain that remains with Jacob, deeply affecting his special relationship with the two sons he had, and a pain that recurs in later biblical references ( Jer 31:15 = Matthew 2:18). No other woman is so loved in the Bible.
Jacob’s meeting with Rachel at the well (Genesis 29:1-12) has some crucial points of difference from an earlier and similar scene of Rebekah’s meeting at the well (Genesis 24). There, the betrothal negotiations are between the servant of Abraham (who is not named), as a substitute for Isaac and the house of Bethuel. The emissary carries select gifts from his master, the patriarch Abraham. His camels kneel by the well outside the city of Nahor in princely fashion. Rebekah walks over and becomes the center of activity as she talks and waters first the servant and then her camels. The life-giving water as a symbol of fertility is an appropriate introduction to the subsequent betrothal negotiations, which resemble a formal “treaty” between families. Rebekah is sent to her new home with fertility blessings, and there she is lovingly received by Isaac. The narrative is formal, repetitive, and oracular, and the impression is that the marriage is predetermined by the deity and will go smoothly. See REBEKA. By contrast, the well in Genesis 29 is located in the field and provides a focal point for pastoral activity against which Jacob’s entire life unfolds. Jacob is the poor stranger, his own emissary, a refugee from the wrath of his brother Esau, bearing no rich gifts, only his staff. He is the initiator of the activity when he himself removes the heavy stone to water Laban’s flock. Rachel, the youngest daughter, is the shepherdess who looks after the flock, but she is passive until after Jacob’s initial burst of action culminating in the kiss and the revelation of him as his relative. The abrupt betrothal negotiations (vv 18-19) are made directly by the directors themselves and are driven by emotion and sentiment rather than by the official propriety of a “family treaty.” Jacob willingly accepts seven years of servitude for her and has apparently already served a free month. From the outset, the impression is given that the marriage will be less conventional than others because it begins on a note of passion. Jacob’s incomparable love for Rachel is described in powerful terms: -Jacob loved Rachel; and he said to her: ‘I will serve you seven years for your youngest daughter, Rachel.’ . . Jacob, then, served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him a few days because of her love for him-(Genesis 29: 18-20). This love remained intact even after her death, when it was transferred to his sons, Joseph and Benjamin. Such a description of love is exceptional in the Bible (for example, the kiss of Jacob and Rachel is the only explicit biblical scene of a man kissing a woman); Outside of the Song of Songs, not much is said about love between men and women.
Rachel’s beauty is a predominant motif in the competition between the two sisters. We are not told of her beauty until we meet Laban’s two daughters, first the eldest, Leah, who is only described as having “weak” or “dull” eyes (presumably a flaw) or “black eyes.” tender” (which seems a much more attractive description): the exact meaning of the Hebrew rakkōt (29:17) is not clear. In contrast, Rachel is beautiful and charming (Heb yĕpat-tō˒ar wı̂pat mar˒eh ), which may seem redundant, but is perhaps meant to be emphatic on aspects of both beauty and character.
After Jacob has worked the agreed seven years, Laban prepares a wedding feast for Rachel. Leah’s last-minute substitution for Rachel is ambiguously interwoven with the elder’s prerogative over the younger daughter and is contrasted not only in terms of birthright but also in terms of appearance, just as Jacob and Esau are similarly contrasted. in terms of primogeniture. and appearance (Gen 27:11). There is a symmetrical “poetic justice” in Laban’s deception of Jacob by substituting the veiled Leah for her sister Rachel in night blindness (Genesis 29:23), just as earlier Jacob had stolen his blind father’s blessing while he was disguised as he replaced her. himself by his brother Esau. Jacob’s cry of woe (Genesis 29:25) echoes Esau’s earlier cry (27:34, 38).
Jacob receives Rachel as his wife at the end of the week of the marriage festivities with Leah (Genesis 29:27), after which he serves another seven years for Rachel, a total of fourteen years of service for her. We must assume that both Leah and Rachel willingly participated in the deception, and that Rachel had demanded legitimate compensation for her willingness to allow Leah to precede her in marriage to Jacob. She perhaps felt sorry for her older sister, who otherwise would have been left without a husband. But in the bargain, she would have insisted that the second wedding not be postponed until the second wedding price was paid. Normally, this was paid to the woman’s father, but since Jacob was penniless, he had to pay in services, the equivalent of seven years of hard work for a wife. A dowry, however, was paid to the bride by her father and would be hers to control. Later, Rachel and Leah would complain that her father had kept their respective dowries (Genesis 31:15-16), which may be one reason why Rachel stole Laban’s household gods (Genesis 31: 19).
Jacob’s increased love for Rachel (Genesis 29:30) seems to heighten the competitive mood between the two sisters as they compete for Jacob’s attention and siring children from him. Rachel’s barrenness and her desire to have children are reminiscent of other biblical stories, notably that of Sarah, whom Hagar sneered at as soon as Hagar became pregnant with Ishmael (Genesis 16:4). Leah had borne Jacob four sons (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah) before Rachel’s envy finally erupted into a confrontation with Jacob. Now her jealousy and anger erupted against Jacob in the impulsive and violent cry (the first recorded speech of Rachel in the Bible): “Give me children or I will die!” (Genesis 30:1). The demand to “give” (hābâ) is explosive, and the sensation of dying expresses imminence (lit. “I am dead”). Rachel, the barren wife, does not ask for a child, but children (plural). Jacob’s reply is a rebuke to her anger: “Am I in the place of God, who has denied you the fruit of the womb?” (Genesis 30:2). The brief exchange of words is extremely effective in conveying Rachel’s desperation and Jacob’s rebuke, her anger and his controlled response. Rachel’s practical solution of offering her maidservant Bilhah to be her substitute to get children from her is meant to strengthen her. There is a double play on words here, since verbs meaning “to build” can also be interpreted literally as “to have children” (see Isaiah 49:17, where we have a similar allusion to bōnı̂m, meaning “builders, -Y bānı̂m, which means “sons”). Raquel names the children thus conceived, and in the meaning of the names she gives to the two sons (Dan and Naphtali) she expresses her sense of joy, consolation and triumph (-God has judged me and also has listened to my voice and gave me a son -and- With valiant fights I have fought with my sister, and I have won -; Gen 30: 6-8).
Leah bore Jacob six sons and one daughter (Dina), and her servant Zilpah bore Jacob two sons (Gad and Asher). Only then does God bless Rachel, Jacob’s beloved, with her first child, whom she names with the express desire to have a second child: -And she called his name Joseph, saying ‘May the Lord add another son to me’- (Genesis 30:24). The situation is much the same with Elkanah and her two wives: Pennina was unloved but had many children, while Hannah was loved but barren for many years (1 Samuel 1).
After the birth of Joseph, and following Jacob’s decision to leave Laban’s house, we see challenge in Rachel’s behavior. By stealing and retaining the household gods (Heb tĕrāpı̂m) of her domineering father, she becomes the unwitting object of Jacob’s curse: “Whoever you find your gods with will not live” (Gen 31:32).
Raquel dies on the journey after giving birth to her second son, whom she calls Benoni (“son of my pain”) but whom Jacob changes the name of Benjamin (“son of the right hand”). He is the youngest and last son of Jacob, the object of his greatest and most tender affection.
Just as Jacob had singled out Rachel for the special love of her life, he also singled her out in death by placing a memorial pillar in her tomb (Genesis 35:20) to mark her grave, where…