Genesis 35:9-20
‘God appeared to Jacob again…. God…talked with him, and Jacob set up a pillar (of stone) in the place where He talked with him…. And he poured a drink-offering out on it…. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke to him, ‘Beth-El’…. They journeyed from Beth-El, and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath…. Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour…. The midwife said to her…: ‘You shall have this son!’…. As her soul was departing — for she died — she called his name Benoni…. His father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave.’ Genesis 35:9-20.
Calvin commented: “Jacob was confirmed — after his return to Beth-El…. God had appeared to him…. The same promise was repeated to him — that he, as one who had returned from captivity to his own country and had gathered new strength to his faith, might accomplish with greater courage the remaining course of his life….
“The death of his beloved wife (Rachel) is next related…. A little later, Isaac his father dies. Then his son Joseph is snatched away, whom he supposed to have been torn into pieces by wild beasts…. He is almost consumed, with perpetual mourning. We see therefore by what a severe conflict and by what a continued succession of evils he was trained to the hope of a better life….
“Rachel died in childbirth…before they reached a resting-place. This would prove no small accession to his grief…, being bereaved of his most beloved wife…. The Lord intended to correct the exorbitance of his affection for her…. Jacob…highly appreciated Rachel’s beauty…. His wife was taken away from him…. The Lord often deprives the faithful of His Own gifts….
“Rachel…was…oppressed with pain. She therefore died in agonies, thinking of nothing but her sad childbirth and her own sorrows — from the feeling of which she gave a name to her son (Benoni, ‘son of my sorrow’)…. (Jacob’s) change of the name (to Benjamin, ‘son of my right hand’) — sufficiently shows that…the excess of sorrow in his wife, was wrong….
“Her burial is mentioned. To which the…fathers could not have attended with such religious care, except on account of their hope of the future resurrection…. It was…a lively symbol of the…resurrection…. The Lord caused that this rite should remain…among His Own people….
“To bury the dead, was…the office of piety. Nature had clearly dictated to them that the human body is formed for immortality…. By sinking into death, it does not utterly perish…. (Jacob) took care to raise…a sepulchre, which might…witness to all ages…he was…devoted to the life to come.”
In his Tracts and Treatises (III:421), Calvin adds: “We say in ordinary language that the soul is ‘breathed out’ and ‘expires’…. It is said of Rachel…. Her soul was departing.”
Her soul has departed — to a better place! So Jacob then erected a pillar (pointing upwards!) — on Rachel’s grave.
