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End of Rachel’s Mourning

15     Thus says the Lord:
In Ramah[a] is heard the sound of sobbing,
    bitter weeping!
Rachel mourns for her children,
    she refuses to be consoled
    for her children—they are no more!(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 31:15 Ramah: a village about five miles north of Jerusalem, where one tradition locates Rachel’s tomb (1 Sm 10:2). The wife of Jacob/Israel, Rachel is the matriarchal ancestor of Ephraim, chief among the northern tribes. She personified Israel as a mother whose grief for her lost children is especially poignant because she had to wait a long time to bear them. Mt 2:18 applies this verse to Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

13 He sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the city and a man will meet you, carrying a jar of water.[a] Follow him.

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Footnotes

  1. 14:13 A man…carrying a jar of water: perhaps a prearranged signal, for only women ordinarily carried water in jars. The Greek word used here, however, implies simply a person and not necessarily a male.