Jacob's beloved wife Rachel died while giving birth to Benjamin, her second son. She "was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)"---Genesis 35:19.
Years later, Jacob repeats this fact to Rachel's son Joseph, telling him, "As for me, when I came from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)"---Genesis 48:7.
Why does Jacob bring that up to Joseph in Egypt? According to one tradition, it is because Jacob has insisted that he be buried at Machpelah (Ge 47:29-31), so that Joseph then wants to know why his mosther's bones haven't been moved there. Leah's remains were at Machpelah, but not Rachel's.
Midrashic tradition offers some creative answers to this question. One proposal is that having the remains of both Rachel and Leah at Machpelah would emphasize Jacob's sin of being married to two sisters at the same time (Le 18:18). This proposal is related to the idea that Rachel died prematurely because the Promised Land could not tolerate this sin (Le 18:25).
Another idea is that Rachel's burial place was fitting for certain reasons. For one thing, she was buried in a place that later became part of the territory of the tribe of her son Benjamin (1 Sa 10:2). Moreover, this location was one that exiles from Judah later passed on their way to Babylon, leading to the imagery of Jeremiah 31:15, where Rachel is pictured weeping for these exiles. In Christian tradition, Jeremiah 31:15 is also related to Herod the Great's slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem (Mt 2:16-18).
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