From Tragedy to Hope

Genesis 35:16-22 contains one of the most tragic texts in the entire Bible, yet it is also full of faith-filled hope. By the end of this passage, Jacob has lost his father, his mother, and his beloved wife and has experienced betrayal by his oldest son, Reuben. Yet new life is born (Benjamine), and a surprising new foundation for future hope is laid (Judah’s leadership in Israel is first foretold). It’s clear, however, that here, like nowhere else, the reality of pain and failure in the biblical stories is in place of the expected religious triumphalism. Greatness always comes at a cost that echoes through every generation of those who walk the path.

The Death of Rachel and the Birth of Benjamin

We read that as Israel’s caravan was traveling from Bethel on their way from Paddan-Aram to Beersheba, where Isaac dwelled (Genesis 35:27), Rachel, who had already suffered enough in her life, entered labor. She had been forced to share her husband with her sister, thought she had lost her son to a wild animal, and had borne three times fewer children than her older sister Leah. Now, she gave birth before tragically dying in the process.

Even though the nurse assured her that a new son was born to her, which was very significant in her context, she called him Ben-Oni, which means “son of my suffering.” But Israel, her husband, changed his name to Benjamin, which means “son of the right hand.” With grief, and may I add, almost never-ending sorrow, Jacob buried her not far from Bethlehem, on the way to Ephrath (Genesis 35:16-22).

One of the reasons Rachel is considered in Judaism to have a role as a powerful prayer intercessor, very similar to the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in Catholic and Orthodox Christianities, is her overwhelming suffering in life. In fact, her suffering is understood to continue in that she alone was buried apart from one of the most sacred places for the Jewish people, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Leah are all buried there in one place, but Rachel is not.

Jacob erected another pillar. People erected pillars in places and at times of extraordinary significance. Prior to this event, he erected a pillar at Bethel at the time of meeting the living God; now he erects a pillar at the time of experiencing the death of the love of his life, Rachel.

The prophet Jeremiah would later hear Rachel weeping for her children in exile (Jeremiah 31:15). Her tears would become the eternal Jewish symbol of redemptive hope, so much so that Matthew’s Gospel would later connect the murder of the boys by King Herod and his death squad to Rachel’s grieving, thereby linking her sorrow to the suffering of all mothers throughout salvation history (Matthew 2:16-18).

What is interesting is that Rachel’s death takes place near where Jesus entered into His own suffering, beginning with His birth. The Tower of Eder is associated with shepherds and the Messiah (Micah 4:8), and eventually the Messiah, in some Jewish and certainly in Christian thought, would be associated with suffering (Isaiah 53, Matthew 27-28).

Judaism even tells an imaginative yet pedagogical story. When God was approached by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses to intercede for the sons of Israel being led into the Babylonian captivity, each was rejected by God in this request. But God listened when Rachel raised her voice of supplication, as she saw them pass by the same road beside which she was buried.

The Sin of Reuben

Jacob, or Israel, then, with unimaginable sadness in his heart, discouraged and weary, continued his journey and pitched his tent by the Tower of Eder (Genesis 35:21).

And then the unimaginable happened. He was betrayed by his oldest son, Reuben, who was standing to inherit half of his father’s assets as firstborn in his family and was poised to lead the entire clan. We read:

“It came about while Israel was dwelling in that land that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.” (Genesis 35:22)

The Bible in general, and the Torah in particular, does not hide the faults of its heroes. Reuben would lose his birthright (Genesis 49:3-4). The monarchy would go to the tribe of Judah and the priesthood to Levi. The profound lesson here is that sin and failure do not derail God’s plan in this world, but that God works through flawed, and in most cases very flawed, people.

The covenant is not broken or discontinued by human weakness; it is carried forward by those who, despite their immense failures, remain within the community of faith.

This act of treachery involved Bilhah, who was about 40 years old at the time, and Benjamin, who was about 30 or so. It is unclear why Reuben did what he did, but it is worth noting that he was the son of Leah, Jacob’s less loved wife, while Bilhah was the maidservant of Rachel, Jacob’s more loved wife, who had just passed away and was buried by the road where travelers passed regularly.

The Scripture is clear that Jacob saw the act as extremely wrong and offensive, and he removed Reuben from leadership in the family despite Reuben being born first; as you recall, Judah would take his place. In his malediction at the end of his life, he reminded Reuben of his disqualifying offense. He said, “he defiled my couch” (Genesis 49:4).

Not only did Reuben do this in overstepping his boundary as a son by sleeping with his father’s partner, but it was most likely meant as a usurpation of his father’s authority, exacerbated by the fact that this happened while Jacob was deeply grieving Rachel’s death.

This incident was not the first time that Reuben acted in little faith. Earlier, when the rest of the brothers wanted to kill Joseph, the son of Rachel, he did not defend him enough to save his life, nor did he show leadership among the brothers as the oldest (Genesis 37:21-22).

Much later, Moses retells this story as both a warning and hope for all generations of Israel, driven by his desire to write the foundational narrative of Israel as both family and nation.

The rest of the chapter provides, for the first time in the entire Bible, an easy-to-follow and easy-to-remember list of Jacob’s women, including his two wives and the surrogate mothers of his other sons:

“Now there were twelve sons of Jacob. The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, then Simeon and Levi and Judah and Issachar and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s maid: Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s maid: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan-aram.” (Genesis 35:23-26)

If one reads this text within the context of the preceding chapters, one would draw one unavoidable conclusion. Since Reuben is disqualified to lead the family and the next in line, Simeon and Levi, are also disqualified after having taken part in the mass murder avenging their sister’s honor described in Genesis 34, the next in line is none other than Judah. This sets the stage for Jacob’s prophetic blessing about him. “The scepter will not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:10).

Each son has a story; each will contribute something to the story of Israel. Remarkably, the children of Bilhah and Zilpah are not marginalized but become first-class citizens in Jacob’s family. All will inherit; all will be fathers of their own tribes. Even Levi’s sons would not be excluded from greatness, foreshadowing Peter’s betrayals and Christ’s trust in him to feed His sheep (John 21:15-17).

Many centuries later, the Apostle Paul would speak of another demarginalization program of God in redemptive history. This one is the ultimate Son of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus would unite, by His Holy Spirit, the people of Israel and the nations, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, slaves and free, among all others (Galatians 3:28). In Christ, the differences of the past are not erased but transcended.

Burial of Isaac

Chapter 35 ends by returning to Jacob’s father, Isaac. Jacob and Esau bury him together, just as once before them, Isaac and Ishmael did for their grandfather Abraham. The estranged brothers now fully unite in grief over the passing of their elderly and less-than-perfect father.

But all of this is not the end of the story of Jacob’s children, because Joseph is still alive in Egypt, a slave, unknown to his father. The covenant has been renewed, but the family is fractured. The death of Rachel, the sin of Reuben, the attempted murder of Joseph, and his eventual sale—all of these events will be revealed in the longest story of the Book of Genesis, the story of Joseph and that of his brothers.

The Torah presents a real family, one that somehow survives. It is a family that knows loss, betrayal, violence, and heartbreak. And yet it endures in spite of it all. The covenant promise is assured and guaranteed by YHWH Himself and must be realized through human beings who are fallen, wounded, and often at odds with each other.

The Bible does not deny suffering, but it sanctifies it. We weep with Jacob over Rachel’s death and, together with him, raise a pillar of memory and hope. Whether in the Old or New Testaments, God’s people face a difficult path, but the promise remains sure. Rachel dies, but Benjamin lives. Death does not have the last word. Life and its Source do.