I've been frantically looking for a record of Leah's death. There must be a database trigger error in the death of Rachel and Isaac. Genesis 35 database didn't tell us about Leah's death like how Jasher 41 database did! Jasher 41 tells us that Leah died when she was fifty-one years old in Hebron as they dwelt with their father Isaac. If you read Genesis 37:2 carefully, you will find that Jacob is left with two wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. Therefore, Leah must have died somewhere before Genesis 37. For more discoveries, I goggled for the biblical online obituaries of Leah's death records. Maybe it would be helpful if I knew Leah's last name. But all I found is, "There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah" (Genesis 49:31).
If you read carefully, God's favor is upon weak-eyed Leah. Leah conceived 6 sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zeubelun; Rachel conceived only two sons: Joseph and Benjamin. Leah was buried among Jacob's family; Rachel was buried in Bethelem. And through the unlikely seed of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Leah the Redeemer came!
Why Leah?
Leah was unlovely and unloved. Leah was rejected by Jacob for he so loved Rachel. But God chose Leah because, in her weakness, she best represent Israel as the least of all people (Deut 7:6-8). Rachel may be beautiful, but she may be spiritually unproductive for she stole the gods from her father, Laban, and hid it. I don't know if she held them until she breathed her last. God's favor on Leah showed us all that it's not about our external beauty, but rather God's eternal blessing that brings us true-present and lasting fulfillment.
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