Rachel, << RAY chuhl, >> in the Old Testament, was the favorite wife of Jacob. Jacob served Rachel’s father, Laban, seven years to win her, and his love was so great, “they seemed to him but a few days” (Genesis 29:20). But Laban tricked Jacob and gave him Rachel’s older sister, Leah, instead. Jacob married Rachel a week later, but had to work another seven years for her. Rachel’s first child, Joseph, became his father’s favorite. At the end of a journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan, Rachel died after giving birth to Benjamin. Canaan was roughly an area that extended from east of the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Rachel was considered the ancestress of the northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, which claimed descent from Joseph. A century after the Assyrians deported part of the tribes in 722 or 721 B.C., Jeremiah described Rachel as mourning over her lost children (Jeremiah 31:15).
