Rachel in the Bible

“Is he well?” Jacob asked.

“Yes,” they said, “and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with his sheep.”

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

As soon as Jacob saw his uncle Laban’s daughter Rachel with his sheep, he went up and rolled the stone from the opening and watered his uncle Laban’s sheep.

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept loudly.

He told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.

Now Laban had two daughters: the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Leah had ordinary eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

Jacob loved Rachel, so he answered Laban, “I’ll work for you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel, and they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

When morning came, there was Leah! So he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Wasn’t it for Rachel that I worked for you? Why have you deceived me?”

Finish the week [of the wedding feast] for Leah; then we will give you Rachel also, and in return you shall work for me for seven more years.”

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week of celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

And Laban gave his slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.

Jacob slept with Rachel also, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was unable to conceive.

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld children from you?”

Rachel responded, "Here's my handmaid Bilhah. Go have sex with her. She can bear children on my knees so I can have children through her."

So Rachel gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her.

Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, He has heard me and given me a son,” and she named him Dan.

Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali.

Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

But Leah replied to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?”

“Well,” Rachel said, “you can sleep with him tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb.

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.

Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were.

Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we have any portion or inheritance in our father’s household?

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live! Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two female slaves, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s.

Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

So Rachel said to her father, “Do not be displeased, my lord, that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is on me and I am unwell.” He searched [further] but did not find the household idols.

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with 400 men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female slaves.

He put the female slaves and their children first, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph last.

Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

Just before she died, Rachel called her son's name Ben-oni, but his father Jacob named him Benjamin.

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

Jacob set up a marker on her grave; it is the marker at Rachel’s grave to this day.

Rachel’s sons were
Joseph and Benjamin.

The sons of Rachel’s slave Bilhah
were Dan and Naphtali.

Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife [Rachel] bore me [only] two sons.

The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

These were Rachel’s sons who were born to Jacob: 14 persons.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel. She bore to Jacob: seven persons.

When I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way, some distance from Ephrath in the land of Canaan. I buried her there along the way to Ephrath,” (that is, Bethlehem).

All the people who were at the gate and the elders replied, "We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel! May you prosper in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem.

When you leave me today, you will find two men near Rachel's tomb at Zelzah on Benjamin's border. They will say to you, 'The donkeys you have gone looking for have been found. Your father is no longer concerned about the donkeys but has become anxious about you two! He is asking, "What should I do about my son?"'

And to those in Rachel, and to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those in the cities of the Kenites,

The Lord says, "A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone."