The beautiful daughter of Laban, for whom Jacob served seven years, which seemed to him but a few days, because of his great love for her. When the time was expired Jacob was cheated by Laban, and Leah was given him instead. He served another seven years for Rachel. She was at first childless, and foolishly said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die”; for which she was duly rebuked by her husband. Apparently she prayed to God, for we read that He “hearkened” to her: she bore Joseph and then Benjamin, at whose birth she died. Jacob set up a pillar at her grave.
It was Rachel who stole the household gods of her father, and then with cunning concealed them. Otherwise we read nothing of her character: at home she had evidently been in a bad school. Her history is given in Genesis 29-35. In the New Testament she is represented as weeping for her children when Herod slew the young children (Matt. 2:17-18), a fulfillment of that spoken in Jeremiah 31:15 (where she is called RAHEL), though the circumstances in the two cases were different. A mother in Israel weeping for the loss of her children applies to both.