1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob
no children, Rachel envied her sister. She
said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I
will die.”
2 Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel,
and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has
withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 She said, “Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go
in to her, that she may bear on my knees,
and I also may obtain children by her.”
4 She gave him Bilhah her servant as
wife, and Jacob went in to her.
5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.
6 Rachel said, “God has judged me, and
has also heard my voice, and has given me
a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived
again, and bore Jacob a second son.
8 Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my
sister with mighty wrestlings, and have
prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had finished
bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and
gave her to Jacob as a wife.
10 Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a
son.
11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” She
named him Gad.
12 Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a
second son.
13 Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters
will call me happy.” She named him
Asher.
14 Reuben went in the days of wheat
harvest, and found mandrakes in the field,
and brought them to his mother, Leah.
Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me
some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 Leah said to her, “Is it a small matter
that you have taken away my husband?
Would you take away my son’s mandrakes,
also?”
Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with
you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 Jacob came from the field in the
evening, and Leah went out to meet him,
and said, “You must come in to me; for I
have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.”
He lay with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived,
and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18 Leah said, “God has given me my hire,
because I gave my servant to my husband.”
She named him Issachar.
19 Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth
son to Jacob.
20 Leah said, “God has endowed me with
a good dowry. Now my husband will live
with me, because I have borne him six
sons.” She named him Zebulun.
21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and
named her Dinah.
22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened
to her, and opened her womb.
23 She conceived, bore a son, and said,
“God has taken away my reproach.”
24 She named him Joseph,† saying, “May
the LORD add another son to me.”
25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob
said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may
go to my own place, and to my country.
26 Give me my wives and my children for
whom I have served you, and let me go;
for you know my service with which I have
served you.”
27 Laban said to him, “If now I have
found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I
have divined that the LORD has blessed me
for your sake.”
28 He said, “Appoint me your wages, and
I will give it.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I
have served you, and how your livestock
have fared with me.
30 For it was little which you had before
I came, and it has increased to a multitude.
The LORD has blessed you wherever
I turned. Now when will I provide for my
own house also?”
31 Laban said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything.
If you will do this thing for me, I will
again feed your flock and keep it.
32 I will pass through all your flock today,
removing from there every speckled and
spotted one, and every black one among
the sheep, and the spotted and speckled
among the goats. This will be my hire.
33 So my righteousness will answer for
me hereafter, when you come concerning
my hire that is before you. Every one
that is not speckled and spotted among
the goats, and black among the sheep,
that might be with me, will be considered
stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Behold, let it be according
to your word.”
35 That day, he removed the male goats
that were streaked and spotted, and all
the female goats that were speckled and
spotted, every one that had white in it, and
all the black ones among the sheep, and
gave them into the hand of his sons.
36 He set three days’ journey between
himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of
Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob took to himself rods of fresh
poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled
white streaks in them, and made the white
appear which was in the rods.
38 He set the rods which he had peeled
opposite the flocks in the watering troughs
where the flocks came to drink. They conceived
when they came to drink.
39 The flocks conceived before the rods,
and the flocks produced streaked, speckled,
and spotted.
40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the
faces of the flocks toward the streaked and
all the black in Laban’s flock. He put his
own droves apart, and didn’t put them into
Laban’s flock.
41 Whenever the stronger of the flock
conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front
of the eyes of the flock in the watering
troughs, that they might conceive among
the rods;
42 but when the flock were feeble, he
didn’t put them in. So the feebler were
Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43 The man increased exceedingly, and
had large flocks, female servants and male
servants, and camels and donkeys.
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