Reading as Seek: to learn Scripture and its teachings. Same facts, warmer framing.

Person

Rachel

Also called Rahel

An imagined, stylized portrait. No one knows what Rachel looked like. AI-generated

WomanRAY-chul

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 1 Samuel 10:2. 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.

Rachel tells Laban of Jacob's arrival; Laban embraces Jacob, Nave mosaic, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome — **c. 432** · *Rachel tells Laban of Jacob's arrival; Laban embraces Jacob*. Nave mosaic, Santa Maria Maggiore, RomePublic domain · Wikimedia Commons

Palma Vecchio, Jacob and Rachel, Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden — **c. 1520–25** · Palma Vecchio, *Jacob and Rachel*. Oil on canvas, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, DresdenPublic domain · Wikimedia Commons

William Dyce, The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, Oil painting — **1853** · William Dyce, *The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel*. Oil paintingPublic domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Gender

Female

Ussher–Jones reckoning

died c. 1739 BC

F. N. Jones’s Ussher-style chronology, used by Theographic: one of several traditional counts, added up from the ages and reigns in the Hebrew text. The Jewish count (Seder Olam) and the Septuagint’s figures differ from it, for early Genesis by centuries. Not a scholarly date.

Dates before the time of the kings are not historically established, and scholars disagree widely about them.

Family

Children

As the dataset records them from the biblical genealogies.

Often appears with

Named in the same verses most often. Sharing a verse doesn’t always mean they met.

Jacob (Israel)18 verses
Leah13 verses
Laban9 verses
God6 verses
Joseph (son of Jacob)5 verses
Bilhah4 verses
Benjamin (patriarch)3 verses
Dan2 verses
Naphtali2 verses
Reuben1 verse
Rebekah1 verse
Esau (Edom)1 verse
Canaan1 verse

Places

Where the data places them (born, died, or an event they take part in) first; then places named in the same verses, which does not mean they were there.

Ephrathdied here; scene of “Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin”3 shared verses
Egyptscene of “Birth of Joseph”
Bethlehem3 shared verses
Ramah1 shared verse
Ephrathah1 shared verse
Zelzah1 shared verse
Canaan1 shared verse
Bethel (of Palestine)1 shared verse
Paddan1 shared verse

In the Bible

All 1 verse in 1 Samuel, in Bible order. Text from the Berean Standard Bible; verse numbers follow the KJV.

1 Samuel

1 Samuel 10:2
When you leave me today, you will find two men at Rachel’s tomb in Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you seek have been found, and now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and started worrying about you, asking, “What should I do about my son?”’

Back to the first 10 Show all 45 verses

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 BC
Birth of JosephGenesis 30:23–24 · at Egypt
c. 1739 BC
Rachel dies giving birth to BenjaminGenesis 35:16–27 · at Ephrath

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).