Genesis 35:19
So Rachel died, and was buried in the highway that leadeth to Ephrata, this is Bethlehem.
Open Genesis 35:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Mortua est ergo Rachel, et sepulta est in via quæ ducit Ephratam, hæc est Bethlehem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀπέθανεν δὲ Ῥαχήλ, καὶ ἐτάφη ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ Ἐφράθα· αὕτη ἐστὶν Βηθλέεμ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַתָּ֖מָת רָחֵ֑ל וַתִּקָּבֵר֙ בְּדֶ֣רֶךְ אֶפְרָ֔תָה הִ֖וא בֵּ֥ית לָֽחֶם
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew II. 16
But what, it may be said, hath Rachel to do with Bethlehem? For it saith, “Rachel weeping for her children.” And what hath Rama to do with Rachel? Rachel was the mother of Benjamin, and on his death, they buried her in the horse-course that was near this place. The tomb then being near, and the portion pertaining unto Benjamin her infant (for Rama was of the tribe of Benjamin), from the head of the tribe first, and next from the place of her sepulture, He naturally denominates her young children who were massacred. Then to show that the wound that befell her was incurable and cruel, He saith, “she would not be comforted because they are not.”
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
10. Then, after distributing money to the poor and her fellow-servants so far as her means allowed, she proceeded to Bethlehem stopping only on the right side of the road to visit Rachel’s tomb. (Here it was that she gave birth to her son destined to be not what his dying mother called him, Benoni, that is the “Son of my pangs” but as his father in the spirit prophetically named him Benjamin, that is “the Son of the right hand).” After this she came to Bethlehem and entered into the cave where the Saviour was born. …