Rachel

Genesis 29 tells that Jacob, fleeing Esau, met Rachel, the younger daughter of his uncle Laban, at a well near Haran and rolled the stone off the well for her flock. He worked seven years for her, "and they seemed to him but a few days," but on the wedding night Laban gave him Leah instead; Jacob married Rachel a week later and served seven more years. Long childless, she gave him her maid Bilhah, mother of Dan and Naphtali, and at last bore Joseph. On the road to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem, she died giving birth to Benjamin, whom she named Ben-oni, "son of my sorrow," and Jacob set up a pillar on her grave (Genesis 35:16–20).

Jeremiah hears "Rachel weeping for her children" and God's promise that "your children shall return to their own border" (Jeremiah 31:14–16); the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 82:10) says Jacob buried her by the road so that she could pray for the exiles passing by. Rachel's Tomb at the entrance to Bethlehem has drawn Jewish pilgrims for centuries; Moses Montefiore renovated it in 1841.