Genesis 35:16-21

2009.Jul.03 12:00

Birth/Death

Read Genesis 35:16-21 | Full Chapter

And they journeyed from Bethel and had but a little way to go to Ephrath [Bethlehem] when Rachel suffered the pangs of childbirth and had hard labor. When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, Do not be afraid; you shall have this son also. And as her soul was departing, for she died, she called his name Ben-oni [son of my sorrow]; but his father called him Benjamin [son of the right hand].
(Genesis 35:16-18, AMP)

People born in/near Bethlehem, according to the Bible (possibly different Bethlehems): Benjamin, the youngest son of Israel; King David; and Jesus Christ. Plays nicely on the town water tower, neh? Anyway.

As the family Jacob is wandering around Canaan (the benefit of nomadic patriarchs is you get to use the line “wandering around” a lot), Rachel goes into labor with the last of Jacob’s sons (and only, I believe, born in Palestine). Rachel dies around the end of labor but lives long enough to name her son, “Ben-oni”, which–according to the note in the Amplified version and Wikipedia–means ‘son of my sorrow/pain’. As literalist naming goes, it’s hard to fault the choice, but it’s not necessarily the sort of name you’d like to grow up with. So, Jacob renames him Benjamin. The Wikipedia article has some interesting discussion about the name, which I recommend at least perusing.

In any event, we once again see a name change (something that comes up less often from here on). It may even represent a change in the role of the tribe of Benjamin during the confederation days. This is the tribe that is very nearly extinguished in the Battle of Gibeah, recorded in Judges 19-21, but from which later the first king of Israel, Saul, is chosen. How well the name change fits just that part of their history.

So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar (monument) on her grave; that is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day. Then Israel journeyed on and spread his tent on the other side of the tower of Edar.
(Genesis 35:19-21, AMP)

A time of rejoicing becomes instead a time of mourning, particularly for Jacob, who loved Rachel the most of his wives, and who will translate that into favoritism for her two sons, Joseph and Benjamin. How the death of his mother at this point affects Joseph is an interesting question, but I see nothing in the Biblical account to shed any light on that query. How the death of Rachel affected Jacob is another question without any direct discussion, so far as I can tell, but it must be imagined it that this was an awful time for him, to understate it.

And, then, what of his other wives? After all, this is a coda to the rivalry between Leah and Rachel, of which their handmaids (and Jacob’s “lesser” wives) were necessarily a part. There’s never any real resolution here. Instead, the fighting and bitterness will continue to play a significant role in Benjamin’s generation.