Rachel

Jacob met Rachel near Haran and agreed to serve her father Laban seven years to marry her. Laban substituted Leah at the wedding, after which Jacob also married Rachel in return for additional service. Rachel's barrenness and rivalry with Leah caused deep distress, and she gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as a surrogate. God later remembered Rachel, and she bore Joseph. When Jacob left Laban, Rachel secretly took her father's household gods and concealed them. Years later she died while giving birth to Benjamin on the journey near Bethlehem and was buried there. Jeremiah later poetically pictures Rachel weeping for her children, imagery Matthew applies to the slaughter of the children around Bethlehem.