Introduction
Rachel is the younger daughter of Laban, for whom Jacob laboured fourteen years in total, and his most beloved wife, described as "graceful and beautiful". Her long infertility, in contrast to her sister Leah's many children, and her eventual death giving birth to her second son, Benjamin, are central to her story.
Family
Meeting and marriage
Jacob met Rachel at a well, where he watered her flock and, upon learning her identity, wept and kissed her; he agreed to work seven years for Laban to marry her, a period the text says "seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her", though Laban's deception led Jacob to marry Leah first, and Rachel only after a further seven years of labour.
Infertility and children
Rachel's prolonged infertility, contrasted with Leah's fertility, caused her considerable distress; she gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob to bear children in her name (Dan and Naphtali), and eventually, after God "remembered" her, bore Joseph herself, declaring that God had "taken away my reproach".
Death
Travelling with Jacob's household after leaving Laban, Rachel went into difficult labour with her second son near Bethlehem and died in childbirth, naming the boy with her dying breath Ben-oni ("son of my sorrow"), though Jacob renamed him Benjamin. Genesis records that Jacob set up a pillar at her grave, a site later tradition continued to identify and mark.