Genesis 35:19

A city of Judah, also called Bethlehem-Judah (Judges 17:7-9). It is first mentioned in connection with the death and burial of Rachel, Genesis 35:19. The history of Ruth is also connected with Bethlehem... David was anointed in the house of Jesse the Bethlehemite, so it seems this was the place of David's birth (1 Samuel 16:4; 17:12, 15). That is why Luke 2:11 calls it the "city of David." It was also the birthplace of Jesus: though it was "too little to be among the clans of Judah," it better suited His humiliation. Bethlehem means "house of bread." That is a very fitting name for the place the Saviour would come from as a man — He who was the living bread that came down from heaven. It seems the town was first called Ephrath (Genesis 35:16, 19; 48:7), and later Ephratah (Ruth 4:11; Psalm 132:6). Once it is called Bethlehem Ephratah, that is, the fruitful, because the ruler of Israel was to come from there (Micah 5:2). This led to the massacre of the infants by Herod (Matthew 2:16-18).

It was the spot where Rachel died. Where Rachel died, Jesus was born.

The moral government of God, as we go along, no more fails than His grace from beginning to end. Rachel's sin was great, and she kept her husband in the dark. Without knowing it, he had said that anyone guilty should not live. Her theft was not only a sin against her father, but in what she stole, a serious insult to God. We have no evidence of proper self-judgment, soon or ever. It is plain that Jacob did at last become aware of idols in his household. To take his beloved away was a chastening, not to her only but to him also.

Jacob's love for Rachel was very great (Genesis 29:20). His grief must have been very great when he lost her. Yet in the faith of his soul he rose above that deep, deep sorrow. You can see it in the name he gave his son. The dying Rachel called the child Benoni (Son of my sorrow), but Jacob called him Benjamin (Son of the right hand). There, near Bethlehem, the true Son of the Right Hand would come into the world. In the name he gave his son, Jacob shows his faith in God. The door seemed to close on Jacob's deepest joys in that place. Yet that same place would hold his brightest hopes safe, in the Babe to be born at Bethlehem.

Rachel dies, but the pillar that records it stands in Israel's land and history until the kingdom. The weeping prophet wrote of her weeping for her children. Those words fit with truth and deep feeling when the King was born and kept safe from the murderous plan of the usurping Edomite — the enemy inside the land, favoured by Rome.

Rachel died and was buried "on the way to Ephrath" (v. 19). Her burial was a necessary step on Jacob's way to fruitfulness, which is what Ephrath speaks of. This place is also called Bethlehem, "the house of bread." Now Jacob sets up his fourth pillar on Rachel's grave. His third pillar was simple confidence in God alone. The fourth fittingly follows: the pillar that buries earthly ambition or desire. God's house and God's interests now take first place in his life. So he is content to bury all that he was or sought "in the flesh."