Jacob and Rachel

The Sojourn In Egypt

The story of Jacob’s love for Rachel is a tragic one. Yet, through the pain and the tragedy, God brought Joseph and Benjamin into Jacob’s life. While Benjamin would remain a small tribe, the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, would go on to become the majority tribes of Israel, numerically.

Jacob was born c. 1836 BC in the Early Bronze Age II. To the north, the city of Ebla was just a newly founded settlement. In Egypt, the Fourth Dynasty was working to complete Menkaure’s pyramid. By the time Jacob deceived his father into giving him the (rightful) blessing he was over seventy years old.

Fleeing from the wrath of Esau, Jacob fled north passing through Ebla on his way to visit his Uncle Laban in Haran. There, as we are told, he met Rachel.

So Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the East. ² And he looked, and saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks. A large stone was on the well’s mouth. ³ Now all the flocks would be gathered there; and they would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and put the stone back in its place on the well’s mouth.

⁴ And Jacob said to them, “My brethren, where are you from?”

And they said, “We are from Haran.”

⁵ Then he said to them, “Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?”

And they said, “We know him.”

⁶ So he said to them, “Is he well?”

And they said, “He is well. And look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep.”

⁷ Then he said, “Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the cattle to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”

⁸ But they said, “We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together, and they have rolled the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.”

⁹ Now while he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. ¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept. ¹² And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative and that he was Rebekah’s son. So she ran and told her father.

¹³ Then it came to pass, when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. So he told Laban all these things. ¹⁴ And Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him for a month.

We all know the story of how Laban tricked Jacob into marrying both Rachel (the pretty younger daughter) and Leah (the homely older daughter). The rivalry between his sisters and the double-dealing of his father-in-law, Laban, brought stress and grief into Jacob’s life.

Rachel was the love of Jacob’s life.

Jacob worked 14 years to pay off the bride price of his two wives. After thirteen years of bearing no child, God heard Rachel’s prayer, and Joseph was born to her in the fourteenth year. Jacob then worked six more years for Laban before he decided to return to Canaan. When he decided to leave, the trouble began, which would lead to Rachel’s untimely death.

Rachel and Leah’s father, Laban, had sold them for a brideprice of 14 years’ labor by Jacob. However, in the Ancient Near East, a woman who was sold for a bride price was supposed to receive a dowry from her father. The dowry was simply property of value. It could be gold, silver, animals, housewares, and even servants. A woman who was sold into marriage without a dowry was a concubine, or servant wife. A woman who had a dowry was a fully “endowed” wife, and her children had higher rights than those born of a servant wife.

When Jacob was preparing to depart, Rachel and Leah consulted with each other and noted that their father had never given them a dowry, which they felt they were owed. So Rachel stole her father Jacob’s silver teraphim idols. They could not have been very large idols because Rachel hid them under her saddlebags.

Jacob was unaware of this appropriation of the idols by his wives and began his journey south to Canaan. However, Laban discovered the idols were missing and then raced to catch up with them. When he reached them, he confronted Jacob for having stolen the idols. It was at this point that Jacob made a critical mistake that we see two other times in scripture. He pronounced a judgment or an oath, not knowing who it would fall upon. (The other two examples were Jephthah, who vowed to offer to God the first thing that came out of his doorway when he got home; and King Saul, who pronounced death on any man who would eat on the day of the battle against the Philistines.)

²² And Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. ²³ Then he took his brethren with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴ But God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”

God warned Laban. Unfortunately for Jacob, he also would have been wise to say nothing good or bad. But he did say something bad.

And Laban said to Jacob: “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and carried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword? ²⁷ Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp? ²⁸ And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have done foolishly in so doing. ²⁹ It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ ³⁰ And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”

Jacob pronounced judgment on whoever stole the gods, not realizing it was Rachel.

Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.’ ³² With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Laban did not find the missing gods. Yet somehow, he and Jacob made up, and Jacob proceeded on his journey.

Rachel was pregnant with Benjamin. By the time she was ready to give birth, they were in the settlement of Shechem, and Jacob had learned the truth about the theft. As Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, she bled to death, leaving the baby in Jacob’s arms.

It is my belief that Jacob felt responsible for Rachel’s death because of the judgment he had pronounced on whomever stole the idols. His preferential treatment of Joseph and Benjamin was his attempt to cling to the only thing that was left of Rachel, the love of his life.

After Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, Jacob doubled down on his favoritism and protection of Benjamin, the youngest, and only surviving child of Rachel, or so he thought.

Later, when Jacob was persuaded to go down to Egypt with his entire family under Joseph’s protection, we are told that Benjamin had 10 sons. If we do the math, this tells us what Jacob had done.

Benjamin was born 6 or 7 years after Joseph. Joseph was 17 when he was sold into slavery, and 39 when Jacob took the family down into Egypt. That means Benjamin had 10 sons by the age of 32, in a time when men were only reaching puberty around the age of 20. This strongly suggests that Jacob had given Benjamin several wives as soon as he was old enough to marry.

Jacob carried his sorrow for Rachel to his grave. And from this story, we learn that we should be careful not to pronounce judgment when we do not know the facts. For by doing so, a man may inadvertently curse someone quite dear to him.