Rachel

Rachel first met Jacob at a well, where he was so moved by her beauty that he single-handedly rolled away the heavy stone covering the well to water her sheep. Jacob immediately loved Rachel and agreed to work seven years for her father Laban to marry her. Scripture says those years "seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her."

On their wedding night, Laban deceived Jacob by substituting Leah for Rachel. Jacob worked another seven years for Rachel, finally taking her as his second wife. The rivalry between the sisters was intense, especially because Leah bore children while Rachel remained barren.

Rachel's desperation for children led her to give her handmaid Bilhah to Jacob, and later to trade mandrakes with Leah for a night with their husband. Finally, "God remembered Rachel" and she conceived, giving birth to Joseph. She saw this as God removing her reproach and prayed for another son.

Rachel's prayer was answered, but at great cost. While traveling with Jacob to Bethlehem, she went into difficult labor and gave birth to Benjamin. With her dying breath, she named him Ben-oni (son of my sorrow), though Jacob called him Benjamin (son of my right hand). Rachel was buried on the road to Bethlehem, where her tomb remains a place of pilgrimage to this day.