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

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

“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.

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?”

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.

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?”

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.

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.

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.

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).

The elders and all the people who were at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you be powerful in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem.

Today when you leave me, you’ll find two men at Rachel’s Grave at Zelzah in the land of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you went looking for have been found, and now your father has stopped being concerned about the donkeys and is worried about you, asking: What should I do about my son?’

This is what the Lord says:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
a lament with bitter weeping—
Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted for her children
because they are no more.