Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/11

8 therefore, had to take Leah for a wife before he could obtain Rachel. For very many years after their marriage Rachel had no children. The Lord, we are told, withheld children from her, but gave sons to Leah. After ten sons and one daughter had been born to Jacob by Leah and the handmaids, then we read—"God remembered Rachel, and she conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Joseph." (Gen. xxx. 22.) Some time after the birth of Joseph Rachel had another son, whom his father named Benjamin. (Gen. xxxv. 16-18).

We hear nothing more of Joseph after the record of his birth, till we come to the thirty-seventh chapter, where his history begins. We there read, at the third verse, that "Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age." It may seem to you that if this were the only reason for Jacob's greater love for his younger son, Benjamin should have been his best beloved, because he was born several years later than Joseph, when Jacob was still older. But Joseph was Rachel's firstborn, and both Rachel and Jacob had long desired to have children,