rachel

⁶He said, “Is he well?” “He is very well,” they said. “And behold, his daughter Rachel approaches with his flock.”

¹⁸And Jacob, loving her, said, “I will serve you for seven years, for your younger daughter Rachel.”

¹Then Rachel, discerning that she was infertile, envied her sister, and so she said to her husband, “Give me children, otherwise I will die.”

²⁴The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁸He agreed to his pleading. And after the week had passed, he took Rachel as a wife.

¹⁰When Jacob had seen her, and he realized that she was his maternal first cousin, and that these were the sheep of his uncle Laban, he removed the stone which closed the well.

⁷As for me, when I came from Mesopotamia, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the very journey, and it was springtime. And I entered Ephrath and buried her next to the way of Ephrath, which by another name is called Bethlehem.”

¹⁹The sons of Rachel, the wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin.

²²The Lord, likewise remembering Rachel, heeded her and opened her womb. ²³And she conceived and bore a son, saying, “God has taken away my reproach.” ²⁴And she called his name Joseph, saying, “The Lord has added to me another son.”

¹⁵Thus says the Lord: “A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not.”

¹⁶Then, departing from there, he arrived in springtime at the land that leads to Ephrath. And there, when Rachel was giving birth, ¹⁷because it was a difficult birth, she began to be in danger. And the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you will have this son also.” ¹⁸Then, when her life was departing because of the pain, and death was now imminent, she called the name of her son Benoni, that is, the son of my pain. Yet truly, his father called him Benjamin, that is, the son of the right hand. ¹⁹And so Rachel died, and she was buried in the way that leads to Ephrath: this place is Bethlehem. ²⁰And Jacob erected a monument over her sepulcher. This is the monument to Rachel’s tomb, even to the present day.

⁴He sent and called for Rachel and Leah, in the field where he pastured the flocks,

²²These are the sons of Rachel, whom she bore to Jacob: all these souls are fourteen.

¹¹All the people who were at the gate, along with the eldest, answered, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who enters into your house, like Rachel, and Leah, who built up the house of Israel, so that she may be an example of virtue in Ephrathah, and so that her name may be honored in Bethlehem.

³⁵she said: “Do not be angry, my lord, that I am unable to rise up in your sight, because it has now happened to me according to the custom of women.” So his careful search was thwarted.

³²But, since you accuse me of theft, with whomever you will find your gods, let him be slain in the sight of our brothers. Search; anything of yours that you will find with me, take it away.” Now when he said this, he did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

¹⁶Then, departing from there, he arrived in springtime at the land that leads to Ephrath. And there, when Rachel was giving birth,

²²The Lord, likewise remembering Rachel, heeded her and opened her womb.

¹Then Jacob, lifting up his eyes, saw Esau arriving, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the sons of Leah and Rachel, and of both the handmaids. ²And he placed the two handmaids and their children at the beginning. Truly, Leah and her sons were in the second place. Then Rachel and Joseph were last.