Genesis 30
Genesis 30
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.”
Verse 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?”
Verse 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.” Verse 4. She gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her. Verse 5. Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. Verse 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. Verse 7. Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. Verse 8. Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
Verse 9. When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. Verse 10. Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son. Verse 11. Leah said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad. Verse 12. Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son. Verse 13. Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy.” She named him Asher.
Verse 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.”
Verse 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.”
Verse 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. Verse 17. God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son. Verse 18. Leah said, “God has given me my hire, because I gave my servant to my husband.” She named him Issachar. Verse 19. Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob. Verse 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. Verse 21. Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
Verse 22. God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb. Verse 23. She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” Verse 24. She named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”
Verse 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. Verse 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.”
Verse 27. Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.” Verse 28. He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.”
Verse 29. Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. Verse 30. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”
Verse 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. Verse 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. Verse 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.”
Verse 34. Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”
Verse 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. Verse 36. He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Verse 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. Verse 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. Verse 39. The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. Verse 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. Verse 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; Verse 42. but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. Verse 43. The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.