Why wasn’t Rachel buried with Jacob but Leah was?<\/p>\n\t
Rachel died shortly after childbirth during a journey from Bethel to “The Tower of the Flock”, which is believed to have been in the area Bethlehem. “Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel labored in childbirth, and she had hard labor. … So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)<\/em>” (Genesis 35:16, 19). Techniques for preserving bodies were not practiced by nomads, so burial was usually done quickly. Even though from a map we see that the family burial ground in the cave of Machpelah, near Hebron, was not that far away, it was still a long journey for a very large family with large flocks — too long to be carting an unpreserved body. It is also very likely that Jacob was too grief-stricken to do much more than have his beloved wife buried where they were.<\/p>\n “Then he charged them and said to them: “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as a possession for a burial place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah<\/em>” (Genesis 49:29-31).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We don’t know when Leah died, but at her death, Jacob did entomb her in the family burial cave. In Egypt, where Jacob was living at his death, the art of preserving bodies was practiced (Genesis 50:2), and Jacob, as a dying wish, stated that he wanted his body placed in the family burial cave.<\/p>\n If there was more to it than these simple facts, the Bible doesn’t tell us. We do know that it bothered Jacob because he mentioned it in his old age at the blessing of Joseph’s sons. “But as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way, when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath; and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)<\/em>” (Genesis 48:7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Why wasn’t Rachel buried with Jacob but Leah was? Answer: Rachel died shortly after childbirth during a journey from Bethel to “The Tower of the Flock”, which is believed to have been in the area Bethlehem. “Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when there was but a little distance to go to Ephrath, Rachel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[189,25],"class_list":["post-17963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-genesis","tag-jacob"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9366,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-did-leahs-son-find-that-rachel-wanted\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":0},"title":"What did Leah’s son find that Rachel wanted?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Leah\u2019s son found something that Rachael wanted? Could you explain this? Answer: \"Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, \"Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.\" But she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18713,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-long-did-it-take-for-jacobs-children-to-be-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":1},"title":"How long did it take for Jacob’s children to be born?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: At our Wednesday evening class, the teacher said all of Leah and Rachael's children were born within 7 years.\u00a0 Another man in the class, who is very intelligent, was puzzled by that and asked several questions for clarity. After about 5 minutes of discussion with the teacher, who is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26035,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-jasher-be-right-about-jacob-spending-14-years-with-eber\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":2},"title":"Could Jasher be right about Jacob spending 14 years with Eber?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You wrote: The Book of Jasher claims that Jacob fled to Eber's home: \"And Jacob was very much afraid of his brother Esau, and he rose up and fled to the house of Eber the son of Shem, and he concealed himself there on account of his brother, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41573,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-john-the-baptist-get-killed-with-the-rest-of-the-children\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":3},"title":"Why didn’t John the Baptist get killed with the rest of the children?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why didn't John the Baptist die, as is stated in Matthew 2:16, but lived to adulthood, baptized Jesus, and was ultimately beheaded, or is Matthew 2:16 simply wrong? Answer: When the wise men came, Herod found out where the Messiah was to be born. \"And when he had gathered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57547,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-have-romantic-feelings\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":4},"title":"Is It Wrong to Have Romantic Feelings?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clem Thurman via\u00a0Gospel Minutes, Vol. 58, No. 40, Oct. 2, 2009 \"And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make for him a help meet for him\" (Genesis 2:18). God intended that man should have a mate, a woman, and that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/romantic-300x239.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":87550,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/transition-jacob\/","url_meta":{"origin":17963,"position":5},"title":"Transition Jacob?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dale Smelser Jacob did not begin life with the character he possessed later in life. Jacob is first described as a \"quiet man, dwelling in tents\" (Genesis 25:27 ASV). The ASV footnote says for quiet, \"harmless.\" So the Pulpit Commentary adds, \"harmless\u2026of mild and gentle manners (activity).\" \"Dwelling in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}