RACHEL


Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New 
York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

GEN 29:9  While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her 
father's sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

10  When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and 
Laban's sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the 
well and watered his uncle's sheep.

11  Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.

12  He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of 
Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.

15  Laban said to him, "Just because you are a relative of mine, should you 
work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be."

16  Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the 
name of the younger was Rachel.

17  Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.

18  Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, "I'll work for you seven years 
in return for your younger daughter Rachel."

19  Laban said, "It's better that I give her to you than to some other man. 
Stay here with me."

20  So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a 
few days to him because of his love for her.

21  Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I 
want to lie with her."

22  So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast.

23  But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, 
and Jacob lay with her.

24  And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her 
maidservant.

25  When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, "What is 
this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you 
deceived me?"

26  Laban replied, "It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter 
in marriage before the older one.

27  Finish this daughter's bridal week; then we will give you the younger 
one also, in return for another seven years of work."

28  And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave 
him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.

29  Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her 
maidservant.

30  Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he 
worked for Laban another seven years.

31  When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but 
Rachel was barren.

30:1  When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she 
became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or 
I'll die!"

2  Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has 
kept you from having children?"

3  Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that 
she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a 
family."

4  So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her,

5  and she became pregnant and bore him a son.

6  Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and 
given me a son." Because of this she named him Dan.

7  Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

8  Then Rachel said, "I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I 
have won." So she named him Naphtali.

15  But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough that you took away my husband? 
Will you take my son's mandrakes too?" "Very well," Rachel said, "he can 
sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."

22  Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.

23  She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, "God has taken 
away my disgrace."

24  She named him Joseph, and said, "May the LORD add to me another son."

25  After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my 
way so I can go back to my own homeland.

26  Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will 
be on my way. You know how much work I've done for you."

27  But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, please 
stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of 
you."

28  He added, "Name your wages, and I will pay them."

29  Jacob said to him, "You know how I have worked for you and how your 
livestock has fared under my care.

30  The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD 
has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for 
my own household?"

31  "What shall I give you?" he asked. "Don't give me anything," Jacob 
replied. "But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending 
your flocks and watching over them:

32  Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every 
speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or 
speckled goat. They will be my wages.

33  And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on 
the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled 
or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered 
stolen."

34  "Agreed," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said."

31:4  So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to come out to the fields where 
his flocks were.

14  Then Rachel and Leah replied, "Do we still have any share in the 
inheritance of our father's estate?

15  Does he not regard us as foreigners? Not only has he sold us, but he 
has used up what was paid for us.

16  Surely all the wealth that God took away from our father belongs to us 
and our children. So do whatever God has told you."

17  Then Jacob put his children and his wives on camels,

18  and he drove all his livestock ahead of him, along with all the goods 
he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of 
Canaan.

19  When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's 
household gods.

33  So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent 
of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. After he came out of Leah's 
tent, he entered Rachel's tent.

34  Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them inside her camel's 
saddle and was sitting on them. Laban searched through everything in the 
tent but found nothing.

35  Rachel said to her father, "Don't be angry, my lord, that I cannot 
stand up in your presence; I'm having my period." So he searched but could 
not find the household gods.

35:16  Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance 
from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty.

17  And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said 
to her, "Don't be afraid, for you have another son."

18  As she breathed her last--for she was dying--she named her son Ben-Oni. 
But his father named him Benjamin.

19  So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, 
Bethlehem).

20  Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks 
Rachel's tomb.

24  The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

48:7  As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land 
of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. 
So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath" (that is, Bethlehem).

1SA 10:2  When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's 
tomb, at Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, 'The 
donkeys you set out to look for have been found. And now your father has 
stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, "What 
shall I do about my son?"'

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