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Rachel....
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Rachel, from the Hebrew name pronounced raw-khale, was the daughter of
Laban, niece and daughter-in-law of Rebekah, daughter-in-law of
Isaac,
granddaughter-in-law of Abraham and Sarah, younger sister of Leah,
first-cousin and second wife of Jacob/Israel, and mother of
Joseph and
Benjamin, from whom two of the Twelve Tribes of Israel originated.
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We first read of Rachel when Jacob
was sent to Haran
(today in Iraq) by his mother Rebekah to live with her brother Laban to
escape the deadly wrath of Esau (Genesis 27:43). Mother and son had just
"pulled a fast one" on the elderly nearly-blind
Isaac in which the blessing,
which was intended to have gone to the older brother Esau, went to
Jacob (Genesis 27:1-40). This followed
Jacob's getting Esau's birthright for the
price of that famous bowl of stew (Genesis 25:27-34). It wasn't a matter of
Jacob simply going somewhere else to live -
Jacob was actually fleeing for
his life because Esau had every intention of killing him
(Genesis 27:41). |
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Upon arrival in his ancestral homeland, Jacob immediately
became infatuated with his cousin, who worked as a Shepherd. According to an
arrangement made with Laban, they could be married in exchange for Jacob
working there for 7 years (Genesis 29:18). When the time was up, the
marriage was to take place, but in order to abide by a custom that the older
were to be married before the younger, Laban resorted to a wedding-night
switch in which the Rachel's older sister, Leah, was substituted in the
darkness without Jacob's knowledge (Genesis 29:23-30). |
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In the morning, the explosive situation was diffused,
to everyone's apparent agreement, by Jacob then also marrying
Rachel - in
exchange for another 7 years of labor. Some time later, Rachel and Jacob
had their first child, Joseph (Genesis 30:22-24).The years that
Jacob
spent in his uncle's employ turned out to be extremely profitable for him.
Not only did his family greatly grow to 11 sons and 1 daughter through his
2 wives and 2 concubines (Genesis 29:31-35, 30:1-24), but he actually
managed to gain most of the wealth of Rachel's father for himself - which
resulted in extreme tension between Jacob,
Rachel, and Leah (the two
sisters also seemed to have much resentment toward their father e.g.
Genesis 31:14-16) on one hand, and Laban and his sons on the other
(Genesis 31:1-2,14-16). It was at that point that The Lord told Jacob to
return to the land that is today named after him - Israel. |
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