Rachel’s Tomb

RACHEL’s TOMB. According to Genesis 35:19, 20 Jacob set up a pillar over Rachel’s grave, a landmark still existing at the time of Samuel (1 Sam 10:2). E. P. Eddrupp noted: “As Rachel is the first related instance of death in childbearing, so this pillar over her grave is the first recorded example of the setting-up of a sepulchral monument” (A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. by W. Smith, II [1863], 989). Many scholars think that the Bible presents two divergent traditions with regard to the site of the grave. S. H. Hooke argued that (a) according to Genesis 35:16; 1 Samuel 10:2 and Jeremiah 31:15, Ephrath, the stated site (Gen 35:19), lay on the N border of Benjamin, c. ten m. N of Jerusalem; but (b) according to Genesis 35:19 and 48:7 it was near Bethlehem, presumably S of Jerusalem (HBDrev., 830). Moreover, the traditional site is one m. N of Bethlehem and four m. S of Jerusalem. S. V. Fawcett added that Matthew’s quotation of Jeremiah 31:15 with reference to the slaughter of the infa