And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Beth-lehem.
Rachel died on the journey near Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. She died while giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob buried her where she died and raised a pillar over the place to preserve her memory. The loss remained a singular grief through Jacob's long life, and shortly before his own death he still recalled her death and burial near Ephrath.
Her death is the only case of death in childbirth recorded in the first twenty-four hundred years of sacred history. It occurred amid the fatigues of a patriarchal journey, without modern comforts of travel. Its solitariness proves the original vigor and health of mankind from creation, when childbirth and life were free from disease and men died the natural death of healthy old age. Disease and early death came only after more than two thousand years of violations of physical law.
Rachel died on the journey near Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. She died while giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob buried her where she died and raised a pillar over the place to preserve her memory. The loss remained a singular grief through Jacob's long life, and shortly before his own death he still recalled her death and burial near Ephrath.
Her death is the only case of death in childbirth recorded in the first twenty-four hundred years of sacred history. It occurred amid the fatigues of a patriarchal journey, without modern comforts of travel. Its solitariness proves the original vigor and health of mankind from creation, when childbirth and life were free from disease and men died the natural death of healthy old age. Disease and early death came only after more than two thousand years of violations of physical law.