“In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more. Jeremiah's original reference to Rachel weeping is set at Ramah, north of Jerusalem — the staging post for the Babylonian exiles being marched into captivity. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, mourns for the northern tribes taken away. Matthew hears in that ancient lament the voice of the mothers of Bethlehem whose children have been taken by Herod's soldiers. The refusal to be comforted is the honest response to irreversible loss — there is no comfort that restores what has been taken. Revelation 21:4 promises that God will wipe away every tear, which means the tears must first be allowed to be real. Matthew does not rush past the grief to the joy.
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