Race (Hastings' Dictionary)

See Games in vol. ii. p. 108. RACHEL, once (Jer SV' AV) Rahel (Snn •« ewe,' Gn 31 al.; 'Pax'i\; Rachel). — The youngei daughter of Laban, whom Jacob, arriving at l,la'.an (Gn L"J'''), meets, as she comes to water her father's sheep (v. "If), at a well in the open country (v.-). Impressed by her beauty, and deeply in love with her (29""-"), Jacob agrees to serve Laban for seven years, if he may then have her for his wife ; but Laban, at the end of the stipulated time, fraudu- lently substitutes his elder daughter, Leah, and only consents to give him Rachel as well upon his agreeing to serve him seven years more (29-'"). Leah, though less loved by her husband than Rachel, is blessed with four children ; this arouses in her younger sister feelings of discontent and envy, and petulantly reproaching Jacob she bids him take her handmaid, llilhah, as a concubine (cf. IG-'), that she may be 'buUt up' — i.e. (1G-) obtain a faiiiily — from her (30'"''). Two sons, Dan and Naphtali, are bom accordingly to Bilhah : the ex- planations given of their names (SO"-') are meant to indicate Rachel's recognition that God had now, at least in a measure, granted her her due, and that she had won, after her long ' wrestlings ' with her sister. His favour and blessing. ' The struggle of these two women for their husband gives us a strange picture of manners and morals, but must not be judged by our standard ' (Payne Smith) : at the same time, so far as the temper and attitude of Rachel are concerned, it is only fair to remember that Leah was not the wife of Jacob's choice, but had been forced by fraud into what was really Rachel's own rightful place in his house. Rachel's anxiety to have a son of her own is, however, evinced before long in her eagerness to obtain some of the youthful Reuben's mandrakes, or love-apples (30'^'-). At last, tlie long-delayed hopes are accom- plished, and Joseph is born (3U, "^). SLx years later (3P')> when Jacob meditates quitting the service of Laban (31'''), both wives endorse cordially his reasons for doing so {'SI'"'- "■"), and accompany him. Rachel, at once unscnipu- lous and superstitious, steals her father's teraphira (31''), hoping, no doubt, that they would bring her and her husband prosperitj- ; Sl^" de.scribes the ready wit by which she conceals the theft from her indignant father. Rachel is next mentioned on the occasion of Jacob's meeting with his brother Esau (33'"'^), when the superior atl'ection which he still felt for her is shown by the position assigned to her and Joseph (33'- ■''). Her death, shortly afterwards, at the time of Benjamin's birth, soon after Jacob left Bethel, is recorded in 35"'"' (cf. 48'). She and her sister Leah are alluded to in Ru 4" as foundresses of the house of Israel, and types of wedded ha|ipiness and prosperity. Like llebekah (Gn 24), Rachel at first (Gn 2'J) produces a favourable impression upon the reader : she is attractive, not only in person, but also evidently in manner and address ; she stirs Jacob's deepest affections; their long and patient waiting, followed by a cruel disappointment, enlists our sympathies; but the sequel shows that, like her aunt, she is not exempt from the family failings of acquisitiveness and duplicity. The Isr. tribes are pronped around Leah and Rachel ; so It is evident that they both possess a tribal as well as a personal significance. For speculations oa to what historical facts may, from this point of view, bt- supposed to be represented by them — e.g. the growth of 'Israel' out of etemente more or len • As resnilarly in the ' Gre.it Bible ' (1539-41) and the Geneva Version (1600) ; Coverdale (loa:.) and the ' Bishops' Bible ' (1668), however, have regularly ' Itachel.' RADDAI RAHAB 19b oripnalU- distinct— see Ewald, Hurt. i. 3T1-6 ; Stade, GVI i. 146 (!. ; \VtlIh. UUt. 4:i> ; Guthe, (! VI (ISW), pp. 5 t., 40-42 ; and cL Bk.s-jami.s, vol. 1. p. I'-l^, Jacob, vol. ii. p. 633 f. Rachel's grave. — In Gn 35" it is said that Rachel (liuil wlien there was yet 'a distance!?) of land ' (nx.i n'l??) to go to Ephrath ; and in v." (cf. 4S") .laioi) is said to have buried her ' in the way to Kplirath (that is Beth-Iehein),' and (v.-") to have 'set up a pillar' ^mazzcbCih) — i.e. here, as often in riiicn. (CIS I. i. 44[ 46, 57, etc.), a sepul- chral monument — 'upon her grave: that is the pillar of Kachel's grave unto this dav. Tlie locality must con.sequently have been well known when the narrative (E) was written ; and, in fact, it is mentioned as a well-known spot in I S 10-, and also alluded to in .ler 31'° (where the prophet poetically imagines Rachel, the mother of Joscjih and Ben- jamin, as weeping over the captivity of the last remnants of her nation, as on their way to exile tliey pa.ssed near her tomb; cf. 40'). The spot which, from at least the 4th cent.,t has been shown traditionally as the site of Rachel's grave, is about four miles S. of Jerusalem and one mile N. of Beth-lehem ; here there is now the Ifubbet Eahel or ' dome of Rachel,' a stone structure, of com- paratively modern date, exactl}' like an ordinary jloslem ' wely,' or tomb of a luily person, about 23 ft. square, surmounted by a dome, and contain- ing an apparently modern sarcophagus ; on the E. an oblong chamber and court iiave been recently added.; A serious difficulty, however, arises in this con- nexion. In 1 S 10- Rachel's tomb is described quite clearly as being on the ' border of Benjamin,' i.e., obviously, the N. border between Benjamin and E]nhraini, not far from§ Bethel (v.*), which was 10 nules N. of Jerusalem ; and a site in the same neighbourhood is strongly favoured by Jer 31", where Rachel is rei)resented as weeping at (or near) Ramah, 5 miles N. of Jeru.salem. || The distance which pN.i n-i33 was understood to express is uncertain ; but it can hardly (cf. 2 K 5'") have been as much as 15 or 16 miles. We seem, there- fore, reduced to one of two conclusions : either (Knob., Graf, Stade, ZA W, 1883, pp. 5-8 ; Riehm, //l(7J», 1281 f.: Holzinger, al.) Ephrath, though elsewhere identified with Beth-lehem (Ru 1- 4", Mic 5^), is here the name of a placo near Ramah (in which case the words 'tliat is Beth-lehem' in 35" 48' will be an incorrect gloss); or (Nold., Del., Dillm.) there were two dill'erent traditions as to the site of Rachel's grave — one tradition (1 S 10'-, Jer 31">) placing it near Ramah, the other (Gn 35" 48') placing it near Beth-lehem. As Rachel has other- wi.se no connexion with Judah, while .she is con- nected closely with Joseph and Benjamin, the former alternative is perhaps the more probable (Buhl, Geogr. 159, does not decide between them). S. R. Driver.