[1] When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister;
and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" [2] Jacob's
anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in the place of God,
who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?" [3] Then she said, "Here
is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees, and even
I may have children through her." [4] So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a
wife; and Jacob went in to her. [5] And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a
son. [6] Then Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice
and given me a son"; therefore she called his name Dan. [7] Rachel's maid
Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. [8] Then Rachel said,
"With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have
prevailed"; so she called his name Naph'tali. [9] When Leah saw that she
had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob
as a wife. [10] Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. [11] And Leah
said, "Good fortune!" so she called his name Gad. [12] Leah's maid Zilpah
bore Jacob a second son. [13] And Leah said, "Happy am I! For the women
will call me happy"; so she called his name Asher. [14] In the days of
wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought
them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Give me, I pray, some
of your son's mandrakes." [15] But she 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, "Then he may lie with you tonight for your son's
mandrakes." [16] When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went
out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have hired you
with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night. [17] And God
hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. [18] Leah
said, "God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband"; so
she called his name Is'sachar. [19] And Leah conceived again, and she bore
Jacob a sixth son. [20] Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good
dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons"; so
she called his name Zeb'ulun. [21] Afterwards she bore a daughter, and
called her name Dinah. [22] Then God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened
to her and opened her womb. [23] She conceived and bore a son, and said,
"God has taken away my reproach"; [24] and she called his name Joseph,
saying, "May the LORD add to me another son!" [25] When Rachel had borne
Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home
and country. [26] Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served
you, and let me go; for you know the service which I have given you." [27]
But Laban said to him, "If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by
divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you; [28] name your
wages, and I will give it." [29] Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how
I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me. [30] For you had
little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the LORD has
blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own
household also?" [31] He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You
shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed
your flock and keep it: [32] let me pass through all your flock today,
removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and
the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. [33]
So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages
with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and
black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen." [34]
Laban said, "Good! Let it be as you have said." [35] But that day Laban
removed the he-goats that were striped and spotted, and all the she-goats
that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every
lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons; [36] and he set a
distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob; and Jacob fed
the rest of Laban's flock. [37] Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and
almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of
the rods. [38] He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks
in the runnels, that is, the watering troughs, where the flocks came to
drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, [39] the flocks bred in
front of the rods and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and
spotted. [40] And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the
flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he
put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock. [41]
Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding Jacob laid the rods in the
runnels before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods,
[42] but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the
feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. [43] Thus the man grew
exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and
camels and asses.
