Genesis 35:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Douay-RheimsHebrew (Masoretic text)

And Jacob erected a pillar over her sepulchre: this is the pillar of Rachel's monument, to this day.
Douay-Rheims

וַיַּצֵּ֧ב יַעֲקֹ֛ב מַצֵּבָ֖ה עַל־קְבֻרָתָ֑הּ הִ֛וא מַצֶּ֥בֶת קְבֻֽרַת־רָחֵ֖ל עַד־הַיּֽוֹם׃
Hebrew (Masoretic text)

The Church Fathers on this verse

One Church Father comments on this verse

John Chrysostom

4th centuryChurch Father

After Rachel gave birth to a son, she "died" and was laid to rest along the way to Ephrathah, which is Bethlehem. Jacob erected a marker over her grave. The sorrow of Rachel's death was eased by the joy of her new child, allowing the righteous man to accept Rachel's loss with a sense of peace.

Cross references

Passages read together with this verse.

1 Sam 10:2When thou shalt depart from me this day, thou shalt find two men by the sepulchre of Rachel in the borders of Benjamin to the south, and they shall say to thee: The asses are found which thou wentest to seek: and thy father, thinking no more of the asses, is concerned for you, and saith: What shall I do for my son?
Gen 35:14But he set up a monument of stone, in the place where God had spoken to him: pouring drink-offerings upon it, and pouring oil thereon:
2 Sam 18:17And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the forest, and they laid an exceeding great heap of stones upon him: but all Israel fled to their own dwellings.
2 Sam 18:18Now Absalom had reared up for himself, in his lifetime, a pillar, which is in the king's valley: for he said: I have no son, and this shall be the monument of my name. And he called the pillar by his own name, and it is called the hand of Absalom, to this day.
Gen 35:9And God appeared again to Jacob, after he returned from Mesopotamia of Syria, and he blessed him,