רָחֵל

Genesis 29:6 רָחֵ֣ל Rachel

“Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”

Genesis 29:9 וְרָחֵ֣ל׀ and Rachel

While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.

Genesis 29:10 רָחֵ֗ל Rachel

As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, with Laban’s sheep, he went up and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.

Here: Her name means 'ewe', a female sheep (the same word appears in Isaiah 53:7). It fits a story in which she shows up as a shepherdess leading her father's flock (v. 9): the 'ewe' arrives with the sheep.

Genesis 29:11 לְרָחֵ֑ל <to> Rachel

Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

Genesis 29:12 לְרָחֵ֗ל to Rachel

He told Rachel that he was Rebekah’s son, a relative of her father, and she ran and told her father.

Genesis 29:16 רָחֵֽל׃ [was] Rachel

Now Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger was named Rachel.

Genesis 29:17 וְרָחֵל֙ and Rachel

Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

Genesis 29:18 רָחֵ֑ל בְּרָחֵ֥ל Rachel, for Rachel

Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Genesis 29:20 בְּרָחֵ֖ל for Rachel

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

Here: The prefix be- here marks the price, 'in exchange for Rachel', just as Jacob offered in 29:18. Rachel's name means 'ewe', so the shepherd is working off the price of a 'ewe' by tending another man's sheep.

Genesis 29:25 בְרָחֵל֙ for Rachel

When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”

Genesis 29:28 רָחֵ֥ל Rachel

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

Genesis 29:29 לְרָחֵ֣ל to Rachel

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

Genesis 29:30 רָחֵ֔ל רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

Here: The younger daughter of Laban and the woman Jacob bargained for in verse 18. Her name matches the Hebrew word for 'ewe', a fitting name for a shepherdess in a story about a shepherd.

Genesis 29:31 וְרָחֵ֖ל and Rachel

When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

Here: The word order puts Rachel first and has no verb. That makes the clause a pointed contrast: 'but Rachel...' Her name means 'ewe,' fitting for a shepherdess (29:9). It sounds like raḥmah, 'her womb,' just before it, but the two words are not related.

Genesis 30:1 רָחֵ֗ל רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

Here: Jacob's younger, loved wife, Laban's daughter. Her name means 'ewe', a fitting name in a family of shepherds.

Genesis 30:2 בְּרָחֵ֑ל on Rachel

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”

Here: With the preposition 'against/at'. His anger is aimed at the wife he loved most (29:30). That he loves her is what makes the outburst painful.

Genesis 30:6 רָחֵל֙ Rachel

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Dan.

Genesis 30:7 רָחֵ֑ל Rachel

And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Genesis 30:8 רָחֵ֗ל Rachel

Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali.

Genesis 30:14 רָחֵל֙ Rachel

Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:15 רָחֵ֗ל Rachel

But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:22 רָחֵ֑ל Rachel

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

Here: Jacob's loved wife, barren until now. Her name means 'ewe', the female sheep (compare 31:38). Its sound is close to raḥmāh, 'her womb', at the end of the verse.

Genesis 30:25 רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

Now after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.

Genesis 31:4 לְרָחֵ֣ל <to> Rachel

So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah to the field where his flocks were,

Genesis 31:14 רָחֵל֙ Rachel

And Rachel and Leah replied, “Do we have any portion or inheritance left in our father’s house?

Genesis 31:19 רָחֵ֔ל Rachel

Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

Here: Laban's younger daughter and Jacob's favoured wife. Her name means "ewe". A ewe acts while the flock-owner is busy shearing his ewes, and the irony may well be intended.

Genesis 31:32 רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

If you find your gods with anyone here, he shall not live! In the presence of our relatives, see for yourself if anything is yours, and take it back.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

Genesis 31:33 רָחֵֽל׃ Rachel

So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and then the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

Genesis 31:34 וְרָחֵ֞ל and Rachel

Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.

Genesis 33:1 רָחֵ֔ל Rachel

Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.

Genesis 33:2 רָחֵ֥ל Rachel

He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.

Genesis 33:7 וְרָחֵ֖ל and Rachel

Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.

Genesis 35:16 רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

Here: Jacob's best-loved wife, for years unable to have children (30:1), who had begged for 'another son' when naming Joseph (30:24). Her name means 'ewe', a fitting name for a shepherd family.

Genesis 35:19 רָחֵ֑ל Rachel

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

Here: Jacob's best-loved wife, the mother of Joseph and now of Benjamin. Her name means "ewe", a fitting name in a family of shepherds (Gen 29:9). Putting her name right after the verb, with the main pause of the clause on it, makes the statement stark: Rachel is dead.

Genesis 35:20 רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel’s tomb to this day.

Genesis 35:24 רָחֵ֔ל Rachel

The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.

Genesis 35:25 רָחֵ֔ל Rachel

The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali.

Genesis 46:19 רָחֵל֙ Rachel

The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.

Genesis 46:22 רָחֵ֔ל Rachel

These are the sons of Rachel born to Jacob—fourteen in all.

Genesis 46:25 לְרָחֵ֣ל to Rachel

These are the sons of Jacob born to Bilhah, whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel—seven in all.

Genesis 48:7 רָחֵ֜ל Rachel

Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).

Ruth 4:11 כְּרָחֵ֤ל׀ like Rachel

“We are witnesses,” said the elders and all the people at the gate. “May the LORD make the woman entering your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you be prosperous in Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem.

Here: Jacob's loved wife. She was childless for a long time before God gave her children, and she was buried 'on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem' (Gen 35:19). Naming her first ties the blessing to this town.

1 Samuel 10:2 רָחֵ֛ל Rachel

When you leave me today, you will find two men at Rachel’s tomb in Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you seek have been found, and now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and started worrying about you, asking, “What should I do about my son?”’

Jeremiah 31:15 רָחֵ֖ל Rachel

This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Here: Jacob's beloved wife, mother of Joseph (and through him the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh) and of Benjamin. She died giving birth to Benjamin and was buried by the road. Here she rises as the ancestral mother grieving her descendants.