But the fair, clear-eyed, beautiful Rachel, like the lovely Sarah and sprightly Rebekah, was barren and childless, and because of this became very much dejected, and exclaimed, “Give me children or else I die!” From this expression we are to understand, she would die from dejection. Doubtless this dejection led to the substitution of her maid Bilhah. Her jealous love for Jacob is overbalanced by her envy of her sister. The favored Rachel desired children as her own, at any cost, lest she should stand beside her sister childless. The ambition to be among the progenitors of the Messiah made Hebrew women eager to have children. Rachel was not willing to leave the founding of the people of God to her sister only, but wished also to become an ancestress, as well as Leah, but in very deed, not until Joseph’s birth, her very own, could she say, “Now God has taken away my reproach.” At length, after a service of twenty years or more, God called Jacob to return to his own people. Laban had been a hard master, not only to Jacob, but to his own daughters. “Are we not counted of him strangers?” said they in their conference with Jacob concerning the return. He had sold them as strangers, more as slaves, for the service of their husband. Hence they had nothing more to hope for from him, for this very price, that is, the blessing resulting from Jacob’s service, he had entirely consumed. The daughters had received no share of it. Hence it is evident that they speak with an inward alienation from their father, and are quite willing to go with Jacob to the land of promise. The time set for the departure was the feast of sheep-shearing. Either Laban had not invited Jacob to this feast, or Jacob took the opportunity of leaving, in order to visit his own flocks. As the sheep-shearing lasted several days, the opportunity was very favorable for his flight. “But Rachel had stolen the images,” the Penates or household gods, which were honored as guardians, and as oracles. From this incident we may infer that she was not altogether free from the superstitions and idolatry which prevailed in the land whence Abraham had been called, and which still, to some degree, infected even those families among whom the true God was known. It is thought she was actuated to steal them with the superstitious idea that her father, being prevented from consulting them as oracles, would not be able to pursue Jacob. This act, however, as also the well-planned and ready dexterity and presence of mind with which she concealed her theft, and prompt denial to her father, reveals a cunning which is far more befitting the daughter of Laban than the wife of the prudent patriarch.