The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin.
Parallel translations
- WEB The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife: Joseph and Benjamin.
- KJV The sons of Rachel Jacob’s wife; Joseph, and Benjamin.
- BSB The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
- NASB The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
- NLT The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Rachel's two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, are named. They are the children of Jacob's beloved wife.
Overview
Rachel is here uniquely called 'Jacob's wife,' reflecting the special place she held in his affection. Joseph and Benjamin headed influential tribes, and from Joseph came Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph's life of suffering followed by exaltation foreshadows Christ, who was rejected by his brothers yet became their deliverer.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Gen 44:27Your servant, my father, said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons:
- Gen 29:18Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”
- Gen 39:1Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the hand of the Ishmaelites that had brought him down there.
- Gen 35:24The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
- Gen 35:16–18They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor.
- Gen 50:1–14Joseph fell on his father’s face, wept on him, and kissed him.
- Num 26:38–41The sons of Benjamin after their families: of Bela, the family of the Belaites; of Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites; of Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites;
- Gen 47:1–31Then Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, and said, “My father and my brothers, with their flocks, their herds, and all that they own, have come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.”
- Gen 49:22–27“Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a spring. His branches run over the wall.
- Num 1:36–37Of the children of Benjamin, their generations, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war;
- Exod 1:3Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
- Gen 37:1–36Jacob lived in the land of his father’s travels, in the land of Canaan.
- 1 Chr 2:2Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
- Exod 1:5All the souls who came out of Jacob’s body were seventy souls, and Joseph was in Egypt already.
- Deut 33:12–17About Benjamin he said, “The beloved of Yahweh will dwell in safety by him. He covers him all day long. He dwells between his shoulders.”
- Gen 30:24She named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 46:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.