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 that one was found in his entourage. Laban’s search led into Rachel’s tent, but she avoided exposure, claiming to be indisposed because of her menstrual period, while remaining seated on the saddle basket containing the teraphim.​—Ge 30:25-30; 31:4-35, 38.

The few details recorded can give only an incomplete picture of Rachel’s personality. She was a worshiper of Jehovah (Ge 30:22-24), but she showed human failings, her theft of the teraphim and her shrewdness in avoiding detection perhaps being at least partly attributable to her family background.

Archaeological discoveries may shed some light on Rachel’s appropriation of her father’s “teraphim.” (Ge 31:19) Cuneiform tablets found at Nuzi in N Mesopotamia, 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. (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, pp. 219, 220) 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 Ge 30:43; 31:1, 2, 14-16.) These possibilities, of course, depend upon the existence of such a custom among Laban’s people and upon the teraphim’s actually being such household gods.