10 Facts About Rachel

Rachel is first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 29 when Jacob happens upon her as she is about to water her father's flock.

Rachel was the second daughter of Laban, Rebekah's brother, making Jacob her first cousin.

Whereas "Rachel was lovely in form and beautiful", "Leah had tender eyes".

Rachel assured Jacob that after his wedding week was finished, he could take Rachel as a wife as well, and work another seven years as payment for her.

Rachel became jealous of Leah and gave Jacob her maidservant, Bilhah, to be a surrogate mother for her.

Bilhah gave birth to two sons that Rachel named and raised.

Indeed, Rachel had taken her father's teraphim, hidden them inside her camel's seat cushion, and sat upon them.

Near Ephrath, Rachel went into a difficult labor with her second son, Benjamin.

Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath, just outside Bethlehem, and not in the ancestral tomb at Machpelah.

Rachel's Tomb, located between Bethlehem and the Israeli settlement of Gilo, is visited by tens of thousands of visitors each year.