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RabshakehAid to Bible Understanding
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Hezekiah to Jehovah in prayer and a delegation was sent to the prophet Isaiah to receive Jehovah’s reply. (2 Ki. 18:37; 19:1-7) In the meantime Rabshakeh was quickly called away when he heard that the king of Assyria had pulled away from Lachish and was fighting against Libnah. Keeping up his propaganda campaign against Hezekiah from a distance, Sennacherib sent messengers to Jerusalem with letters of continued taunt and strong threat to bring Hezekiah to surrender. (2 Ki. 19:8-13) King Hezekiah took the letters to the temple of Jerusalem and spread them before Jehovah along with his urgent prayer for help. (2 Ki. 19:14-19) Jehovah gave his answer through the prophet Isaiah that the king of Assyria “will not come into this city nor will he shoot an arrow there nor confront it with a shield nor cast up a siege rampart against it. By the way by which he proceeded to come, he will return, and into this city he will not come, is the utterance of Jehovah.” (2 Ki. 19:32, 33) That night the angel of Jehovah struck down in death 185,000 soldiers of the Assyrians. This unexpected mighty blow caused Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, to withdraw immediately and return to Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, where Sennacherib was assassinated. (2 Ki. 19:35-37) As a blasphemous taunter of the living God Jehovah, Rabshakeh’s efforts came to nothing.
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RacalAid to Bible Understanding
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RACAL
(Raʹcal) [trade or commerce].
One of the places to which David sent spoils from his war with the Amalekites. (1 Sam. 30:18, 26, 29) One edition of the Greek Septuagint has “Carmel” instead of Racal, and some scholars believe this represents the original reading.
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RaceAid to Bible Understanding
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RACE
See GAMES.
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RachelAid to Bible Understanding
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RACHEL
(Raʹchel) [ewe].
Daughter of Laban, younger sister of Leah, and Jacob’s first cousin and preferred wife. (Gen. 29:10, 16, 30) Jacob fled from his murderous brother Esau in 1781 B.C.E., traveling to Haran in Paddan-aram, in the “land of the Orientals.” (Gen. 28:5; 29:1) Rachel, a girl “beautiful in form and beautiful of countenance,” served as a shepherdess for her father and she met Jacob at a well near Haran. Jacob was received into his uncle’s household and one month later agreed to serve Laban seven years in order to marry Rachel, with whom he was now in love. His love did not weaken during the seven years and so these “proved to be like some few days” to him. On the wedding night, however, his uncle substituted the older daughter Leah, who evidently cooperated in carrying out the deceit. Accused of trickery by Jacob on the following morning, Laban appealed to local custom as an excuse for his conduct. Jacob agreed to carry out a full marriage week with Leah before receiving Rachel and thereafter to work another seven years for Laban.—Gen. 29:4-28.
Rachel did not disappoint Jacob as his wife, and Jacob showed her more love than Leah. Jehovah now favored Leah in her disadvantaged position, blessing her with four sons, while Rachel remained barren. (Gen. 29:29-35) Rachel displayed jealousy of her sister as well as despair over her own infertility, a condition then viewed as a great reproach among women. Her fretful impatience angered even her loving husband. To compensate for her own barrenness she gave Jacob her maidservant for procreation purposes (as Sarah had done earlier with her slave Hagar) and the two children born as a result were considered Rachel’s. Leah’s maid and Leah herself produced a total of four more sons before Rachel’s hope was finally realized and she brought forth her own first son, Joseph.—Gen. 30:1-24.
Jacob was now ready to depart from Haran, but his father-in-law prevailed upon him to remain longer, and it was six years later that, at God’s direction, Jacob pulled away. Due to Laban’s double-dealing methods, Jacob did not advise him of his departure, and both Leah and Rachel were in agreement with their husband in this. Before leaving, Rachel stole her father’s “teraphim,” evidently some type of idol images. When Laban later caught up with the group and made known the theft (apparently his major concern), Jacob, unaware of Rachel’s guilt, showed his disapproval of the act itself, decreeing death for the offender if found among his entourage. Laban’s search led into Rachel’s tent, but she avoided exposure, claiming to be indisposed due to her menstrual period, while remaining seated on the saddlebags containing the teraphim.—Gen. 30:25-30; 31:4-35, 38.
At his meeting with his brother Esau, Jacob showed his continued preference for Rachel by putting her and her only son last in the order of travel, doubtless viewing this as the safest position in the event of attack by Esau. (Gen. 33:1-3, 7) After dwelling for a time in Succoth, then in Shechem and finally in Bethel, Jacob headed farther S. Somewhere between Bethel and Bethlehem, Rachel gave birth to her second child, Benjamin, but died in childbearing and was buried there, Jacob erecting a pillar to mark the grave.—Gen. 33:17, 18; 35:1, 16-20.
The few details recorded can give only an incomplete picture of Rachel’s personality. She was a worshiper of Jehovah (Gen. 30:22-24), but showed human failings, her theft of the teraphim and her shrewdness in avoiding detection perhaps being at least partly attributable to her family background. Whatever her weaknesses, she was dearly loved by Jacob, who, even in old age, viewed her as having been his true wife and prized her children over all his others. (Gen. 44:20, 27-29) His words to Joseph shortly before dying, though simple, nevertheless convey the depth of Jacob’s affection for her. (Gen. 48:1-7) She and Leah are spoken of as having “built the house of Israel [Jacob].”—Ruth 4:11.
Archaeological discoveries may shed some light on Rachel’s appropriation of her father’s “teraphim.” Cuneiform tablets found at Nuzi in N Mesopotamia, and believed to date from about the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., reveal that some ancient peoples viewed the possession of household gods as representing legal title to inheritance of family property. Some suggest that Rachel may have felt that Jacob had the right to a share in the inheritance in Laban’s property as an adopted son and that she may have taken the teraphim to ensure this or even to gain advantage over Laban’s sons. Or she may have viewed the possession of these as a means of blocking any legal attempt by her father to claim some of the wealth Jacob had gained while in his service. (Compare Genesis 30:43; 31:1, 2, 14-16.) These possibilities, of course, depend upon such custom being true of Laban’s people and upon the “teraphim” actually being such household gods.
Rachel’s grave site “in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah” was still known in Samuel’s time, some six centuries later. (1 Sam. 10:2) The traditional location of the grave lies about a mile (1.6 kilometers) N of Bethlehem. This, however, would place it in the territory of Judah, not Benjamin. Therefore others suggest a location farther N, but any attempt at precision is useless today.
“WEEPING OVER HER SONS”
At Jeremiah 31:15 Rachel is depicted as weeping over her sons who have been carried into the land of the enemy, her lamentation being heard in Ramah (N of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin). Since Ephraim, whose tribal descendants are often used collectively to stand for the northern kingdom of Israel, is mentioned several times in the context (vss. 6, 9, 18, 20), some scholars believe this prophecy relates to the exiling of the people of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians. (2 Ki. 17:1-6; 18:9-11) On the other hand, it might relate to the eventual exiling of both those of Israel and of Judah (the latter by Babylon). In the first case, the figure of Rachel would be very appropriate since she was the maternal ancestor of Ephraim (through Joseph), the most prominent tribe of the northern kingdom. In the second case, Rachel’s being the mother not only of Joseph but also of Benjamin, whose tribe formed part of the southern kingdom of Judah, would make her a fitting symbol of the mothers of all Israel, their bringing forth sons now seeming to have been in vain. Jehovah’s comforting promise, however, was that the exiles would “certainly return from the land of the enemy.”—Jer. 31:16.
This text was quoted by Matthew in connection with the slaughter of infants in Bethlehem at Herod’s order. (Matt. 2:16-18) Since Rachel’s grave was at least relatively near Bethlehem (though apparently not at the traditional site), this figure of Rachel weeping was appropriate to express the grief of the mothers of the slain children. But even more so was this quotation of Jeremiah’s prophecy appropriate in view of the similarity of the situation. The Israelites were subject to a greater Babylon, in whom is found the blood of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth. (Rev. 17:5, 6; 18:24), and the killing of the children was by a representative of a foreign power that dominated the Israelites. The “land of the enemy” into which the children had gone was obviously not a political region as in the earlier case. It therefore appears to refer to the grave, the region ruled over by ‘King Death’ (compare Psalm 49:14; Revelation 6:8), death being called “the last enemy” to be destroyed. (Rom. 5:14, 21; 1 Cor. 15:26) Any return from such “exile” would, of course, mean a resurrection from the dead.
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RaddaiAid to Bible Understanding
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RADDAI
(Radʹdai) [beating down].
Jesse’s fifth-named son; an older brother of David in the tribe of Judah.—1 Chron. 2:13-15.
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RahabAid to Bible Understanding
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RAHAB
(Raʹhab).
1. [Heb., Ra·hhavʹ, wide, broad]. A prostitute of Jericho who became a worshiper of Jehovah. In the spring of 1473 B.C.E. two Israelite spies came into Jericho and took up lodging at Rahab’s home. (Josh. 2:1) The duration of their stay there is not stated, but Jericho was not so big as to take a long time to spy it out.
That Rahab really was a harlot or prostitute in the common sense of the word has been denied in some circles, especially among Jewish traditionalists, but this does not seem to have support in fact. The Hebrew word za·nahʹ always signifies an illicit relationship, either sexual or as a figure of spiritual unfaithfulness, and in each instance where it denotes a prostitute it is so translated in the English versions. It is not rendered “hostess,” “innkeeper” or the like. Besides, among the Canaanites harlotry was not a business of ill repute. Rahab’s having flax on her roof and scarlet cord available would indicate that she was industrious.
Rahab’s two guests were recognized as Israelites by others, who reported the matter to the king. However, Rahab quickly hid the men among the flax stalks drying on the roof so that when the authorities got there to pick the men up she was able to direct them elsewhere without arousing their suspicions. In all of this Rahab demonstrated greater devotion to the God of Israel than to her own condemned community.—Josh. 2:2-7.
At what point Rahab had become aware of the spies’ purpose there and Israel’s intentions concerning Jericho is uncertain. But she now confessed to them the great fear and dread existing in the city because of reports about Jehovah’s saving acts for Israel over the past forty years or more. She asked the spies to swear to her for the preservation of herself and her whole family—father, mother and all the rest. To this they agreed, provided she gather all the family into her house, hang a scarlet cord from the window, and remain silent concerning their visit, all of which she promised to do. Further protecting the spies, she enabled them to escape through a window (the house being on the city wall) and told them how they could avoid the search party that had headed for the Jordan fords.—Josh. 2:8-22.
The spies reported back to Joshua all that had happened. (Josh. 2:23, 24) Then after Jericho’s wall fell down, Rahab’s house, “on a side of the wall,” was not destroyed. (Josh. 6:22) On Joshua’s orders that Rahab’s household be spared, the same two spies brought her out to safety. After a period of separation from Israel’s camp, Rahab and her family were permitted to dwell among the Israelites. (Josh. 6:17, 23, 25) This former prostitute then became the wife of Salmon and mother of Boaz in the royal ancestry of the Davidic kings; she is one of the four women named in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus. (Ruth 4:20-22; Matt. 1:5, 6) She is also an outstanding example of one who, though not an Israelite, by works proved her complete faith in Jehovah. “By faith,” Paul tells us, “Rahab the harlot did not perish with those who acted disobediently, because she received the spies in a peaceable way.” “Was not also Rahab the harlot declared righteous by works, after she had received the messengers hospitably and sent them out by another way?” asks James.—Heb. 11:30, 31; Jas. 2:25.
2. [Heb., Raʹhav, storm, arrogance]. A symbolic expression first used in Job (9:13; 26:12), where it is translated “stormer.” (NW) In the second of these passages, the context and parallel construction connect it with a great sea monster. Similarly, Isaiah 51:9 links Rahab with a sea monster: “Are you not the one that broke Rahab to pieces, that pierced the sea monster?”
Rahab, a proud, arrogant “sea monster” came to symbolize Egypt and her Pharaoh who opposed Moses and Israel. Isaiah 51, quoted above, alludes to Jehovah’s delivering Israel from Egypt in the next verse: “Are you not the one that dried up the sea, the waters of the vast deep? The one that made the depths of the sea a way for the repurchased ones to go across?” At Isaiah 30:7 “Rahab” is again connected with Egypt. Psalm 87:4 mentions “Rahab” where Egypt appropriately fits, as the first in a list of Israel’s enemies along with Babylon, Philistia, Tyre and Cush. The Targums use “the Egyptians” in this verse, and at Psalm 89:10 they paraphrase “Rahab” in such a way as to link the term with Egypt’s arrogant Pharaoh whom Jehovah humiliated.
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RahamAid to Bible Understanding
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RAHAM
(Raʹham) [love, compassion].
A son of Shema in the Calebite branch of Judah’s genealogy.—1 Chron. 2:4, 5, 9, 42-44.
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RainAid to Bible Understanding
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RAIN
Rain is a vital part of the cycle by which water that rises into the atmosphere as vapor from land and water surfaces of the globe later condenses and falls to the ground, thus providing moisture necessary for plant and animal life. The Bible mentions rain in connection with this wisely arranged and dependable cycle.—Job 36:27, 28; Eccl. 1:7; Isa. 55:10.
At an early point in the history of the preparation of the earth “God had not made it rain upon the earth” but “a mist would go up from the earth and it watered the entire surface of the ground.” The time referred to is evidently early on the third creative “day,” before vegetation appeared. (Gen. 2:5, 6; 1:9-13) The first instance in the Biblical record when rain is specifically mentioned as falling is in the account of the Flood. Then “the floodgates of the heavens were opened,” and “the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights.”—Gen. 7:11, 12; 8:2.
FORMATION
Among the questions that Jehovah put to Job, emphasizing man’s limited understanding of the forces and laws of creation and the earth, was: “Does there exist a father for the rain?” (Job 38:28) Though meteorologists have studied extensively the formation of rain, the volume The World We Live In (1955, p. 79) observes: “The processes by which a cloud manufactures rain remain obscure; it appears that several
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