Rachel: Loved More, and Still Barren

Who Rachel Is

Rachel (רָחֵל) belongs to the era of the patriarchs, placed at around 1996 BC to 1635 BC (era placed on Ussher's chronology, 1650). She is the daughter of Laban, the younger sister of Leah, the wife of the man Scripture also calls Israel, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. Her footprint in the Bible runs to forty-five verses across eleven passages: forty-one in Genesis, one each in Ruth, 1 Samuel, Jeremiah and Matthew. She first appears in Genesis 29:6 and is named for the last time in Matthew.

The Shepherdess at the Well

She enters the story doing her work. "While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative, and that he was Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father" (Genesis 29:9-12). The scene belongs as much to her running feet as to his weeping. She is a keeper of sheep before she is anything else in the narrative.

The text then sets the two sisters side by side: "Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive. Jacob loved Rachel. He said, 'I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter'" (Genesis 29:16-18). The years of that service are noted in Genesis 29:20, and the morning that undid the bargain in Genesis 29:25.

Given, Loved, and Barren

"Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. Laban gave Bilhah, his servant, to his daughter Rachel to be her servant. He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him seven more years. Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren" (Genesis 29:28-31). Two facts stand in one breath, and they do not comfort each other: Rachel was loved more, and Rachel was barren.

Out of that ache comes her sharpest recorded word. "When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or else I will die.' Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, 'Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?'" (Genesis 30:1-2). Scripture names the emotion without softening it: she envied her sister.

What follows is a contest counted in sons. "Rachel said, 'God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.' Therefore she called his name Dan. Bilhah, Rachel's servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. Rachel said, 'I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.' She named him Naphtali" (Genesis 30:6-8). She can speak of God hearing her voice and of prevailing over her sister in the same set of names. A further exchange between the sisters stands in Genesis 30:14-15, and the turn in her own womb in Genesis 30:22, with Genesis 30:25 following.

The Teraphim in the Camel's Saddle

The departure from Laban brings her second recorded act of deception. Jacob's oath and its aftermath read: "Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.' For Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them. Laban went into Jacob's tent, into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn't find them. He went out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn't find them" (Genesis 31:32-34). The theft itself is noted in Genesis 31:19; her words with her sister to Jacob in the field stand in Genesis 31:4 and 31:14. Her husband swore a death sentence over a thing his wife had hidden under her.

The Later Mentions

Much of what remains is mention rather than scene: Genesis 33:1-2 and 33:7, Genesis 35:16, Genesis 35:19-20, Genesis 35:24-25, Genesis 46:19, 46:22 and 46:25, and Genesis 48:7. Beyond Genesis her name is spoken in Ruth 4:11, in 1 Samuel 10:2, and in Jeremiah 31:15.

Her Failures, Named

The text does not protect her. She envied her sister (Genesis 30:1). She framed motherhood as a wrestling match won against Leah (Genesis 30:8). She stole her father's teraphim and hid them under herself while he searched (Genesis 31:19; 31:32-34). These are recorded of a woman who was loved and wept over at a well.

What We Are Not Told

Why Yahweh opened Leah's womb and left Rachel barren is not explained in these passages; the text simply reports both (Genesis 29:31). What she intended by taking the teraphim is not stated, only that she took them and that Jacob did not know (Genesis 31:32-34). The dossier records no further notes and no resolved unknowns beyond this.

Her Name in Matthew

The one New Testament reference listed is Matthew 2:18, where Rachel is named. It is the last appearance of her name in Scripture, carried forward from Jeremiah 31:15 into the Gospel of Matthew. The woman who came with her father's sheep, who envied, who stole, who was loved and was barren, is named there by name.