Person
Rachel
Also called Rahel
In Genesis 29–35, a shepherdess for whom Jacob works seven years, and then seven more; she is the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, and dies giving birth to Benjamin.
See Genesis 29:9, Genesis 29:20, Genesis 29:30, Genesis 35:18.
A ewe and a shepherd's crook marks Rachel in the reading view: she came with her father's sheep, for she kept them (Genesis 29:9).
Mentioned in 45 verses across 5 books, first in Genesis 29:6. The verses below are the ones linked to this person (the Theographic dataset, with our sourced corrections).
How artists have pictured her
3 works from different centuries and traditions. Each shows how its time and place imagined Rachel, not how she looked.
In the Bible
The first 10 of 45 verses, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.
Genesis
- Genesis 29:6
“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”
- Genesis 29:9
While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
- Genesis 29:10
As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
- Genesis 29:11
Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.
- Genesis 29:12
He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.
- Genesis 29:16
Now Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.
- Genesis 29:17
Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.
- Genesis 29:18
Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”
- Genesis 29:20
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.
- Genesis 29:25
When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”
Events
Events the dataset lists Rachel as taking part in. Dates follow its Ussher–Jones reckoning (one of several traditional counts), not established history.
- c. 1745 BCBirth of Joseph
- c. 1739 BCRachel dies giving birth to Benjamin
Dictionary
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), as attached to this record by Theographic. The entry is for the name and can describe more than one person who bore it. Easton wrote in 1897, and some of his views are now debated.
Read Easton’s entry
Ewe, “the daughter”, “the somewhat petulant, peevish, and self-willed though beautiful younger daughter” of Laban, and one of Jacob’s wives (Gen. 29:6, 28). He served Laban fourteen years for her, so deep was Jacob’s affection for her. She was the mother of Joseph (Gen. 30:22-24). Afterwards, on Jacob’s departure from Mesopotamia, she took with her her father’s teraphim (31:34, 35). As they journeyed on from Bethel, Rachel died in giving birth to Benjamin (35:18, 19), and was buried “in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave”. Her sepulchre is still regarded with great veneration by the Jews. Its traditional site is about half a mile from Jerusalem.
This name is used poetically by Jeremiah (31:15-17) to denote God’s people mourning under their calamities. This passage is also quoted by Matthew as fulfilled in the lamentation at Bethlehem on account of the slaughter of the infants there at the command of Herod (Matt. 2:17, 18).