Who
Laban’s younger daughter, for whom Jacob served seven years, which “seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her” (Genesis 29:20). Long barren, she bore Joseph, and died giving birth to Benjamin, “on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem)” (Genesis 35:19). Jeremiah heard her “weeping for her children”, and Matthew hears the same voice in Bethlehem’s mourning for the Holy Innocents (Matthew 2:18). Justin Martyr read Jacob’s two wives as Israel and the Church: Leah the synagogue, Rachel the Church, for whom Christ serves still.
Key verses
- Genesis 29:20
Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.
- Genesis 29:28
Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife.
- Genesis 35:19
Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem).
- Genesis 35:24
The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
- Jeremiah 31:15
The LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”
- Matthew 2:18
“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.”
Where the Bible names her
Family
- Husband
Discussed by
Comments on the verses that name her (8 of 32).
- Glossa Ordinaria on Matthew 1:3–6 (6)Catena Aurea on Matthew
Let us now see what virtues they be which these fathers edify in us; for faith, hope, and charity are the foundation of all virtues; those that follow are like additions over and above them. Judah is interpreted…
- John Chrysostom on Matthew 2:17–18Catena Aurea on Matthew
The Evangelist by this history of so bloody a massacre, having filled the reader with horror, now again sooths his feelings, shewing that these things were not done because God could not hinder, or knew not of them;…
- Jerome on Matthew 2:17–18Catena Aurea on Matthew
This passage of Jeremiah has been quoted by Matthew neither according to the Hebrew nor the LXX version. This shews that the Evangelists and Apostles did not follow any one’s translation, but according to the Hebrew…
- Pseudo-Chrysostom on Matthew 2:17–18Catena Aurea on Matthew
Or, it was heard on high, because uttered for the death of the innocent, according to that, “The voice of the poor entereth into the heavens.” The ‘weeping’ means the cries of the children; ‘lamentation,’ refers to…
- Jerome on Matthew 2:17–18 (2)Catena Aurea on Matthew
Rachel’s son was Benjamin, in which tribe Bethlehem is not situated. How then does Rachel weep for the children of Judah as if they were her own? We answer briefly. She was buried near Bethlehem in Ephrata, and was…
- Augustine of Hippo on Matthew 2:17–18Catena Aurea on Matthew
Or, The sons of Benjamin, who were akin to Rachel, were formerly cut off by the other tribes, and so extinct both then and ever after. Then therefore Rachel began to mourn her sons, when she saw those of her sister…
- Remigius of Auxerre on Matthew 2:17–18Catena Aurea on Matthew
The sacred Evangelist adds, to shew the greatness of the mourning, that even the dead Rachel was roused to mourn her sons; and “would not be comforted because they were not.”
- Jerome on Matthew 2:17–18 (3)Catena Aurea on Matthew
This may be understood in two ways; either she thought them dead for all eternity, so that no consolation could comfort her; or, she desired not to receive any comfort for those who she knew had gone into life eternal.