Bible Strands
Genesis 48:7
Now as for me, when I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died along the way in the land of Canaan, some distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath” (that is, Bethlehem).
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jacob addresses Joseph, explaining his past grief over Rachel's death during his return from Paddan, immediately before establishing the inheritance rights for Joseph's sons.
The words — The Hebrew מֵ֩תָה (me'tah) literally means "she died," while עָלַ֨/י ('alay) translates "on me," anchoring the event to Jacob's personal experience of loss.
The thread — This burial site connects to Genesis 35:16, where Rachel first labored near Ephrath, and later appears in Matthew 2:18 as a prophetic motif of mourning.
Why it lands — The text states that Jacob buried Rachel beside the road to Ephrath, identifying the location as Bethlehem. A reader must first accept this historical record of a patriarch's grief before tracing its later use as a symbol of collective sorrow.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Beth–lehem.
Cross-references
- Genesis 35:9 After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him.
- Genesis 35:16 Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.
- Matthew 2:18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
- Genesis 25:20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.
- Ruth 1:2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.
- 1 Samuel 1:1 Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
- 1 Samuel 10:2 When you leave me today, you will find two men at Rachel’s tomb in Zelzah on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, ‘The donkeys you seek have been found, and now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys and started worrying about you, asking, “What should I do about my son?”’
- 1 Samuel 17:12 Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah who had eight sons. And in the days of Saul, Jesse was old and well along in years.
- Micah 5:2 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.