They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, ¹  Rachel went into labor ²  – and her labor was hard.

“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, ¹  Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were ²  gone.” ³ 

“Is he well?” ¹  Jacob asked. They replied, “He is well. ²  Now look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

When Jacob explained ¹  to Rachel that he was a relative of her father ²  and the son of Rebekah, she ran and told her father.

So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. ¹  But they seemed like only a few days to him ²  because his love for her was so great. ³ 

Jacob did as Laban said. ¹  When Jacob ²  completed Leah’s bridal week, ³  Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ⁴ 

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer ¹  and given me a son.” That is why ²  she named him Dan. ³ 

Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” ¹  So she named him Naphtali. ² 

Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance ¹  in our father’s house?

While Laban had gone to shear his sheep, ¹  Rachel stole the household idols ²  that belonged to her father.

Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.

After Rachel had given birth ¹  to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send ²  me on my way so that I can go ³  home to my own country. ⁴ 

Jacob looked up ¹  and saw that Esau was coming ²  along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

Jacob became furious ¹  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ² 

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ¹  So Jacob ²  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ³  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ⁴  me?”

At the time ¹  of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants ²  in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Whoever has taken your gods will be put to death! ¹  In the presence of our relatives ²  identify whatever is yours and take it.” ³  (Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.) ⁴ 

(Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle ¹  and sat on them.) ²  Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. ³ 

But as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died – to my sorrow ¹  – in the land of Canaan. It happened along the way, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there on the way to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem). ²