Genesis30

¹Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

²And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

³So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.”

⁴Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.

⁷And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.

¹⁰And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

¹¹Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad.

¹²And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

¹³Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.

¹⁴Now 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.”

¹⁵But 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?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, 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.” And he lay with her that night.

¹⁷And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.

¹⁹Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.

²¹Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

²³And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

²⁴So she called his name Joseph, and said, “The Lord shall add to me another son.”

²⁵And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.

²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”

²⁸Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me.

³⁰For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

³¹So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks:

³²Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.

³³So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!”

³⁵So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

³⁶Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods.

³⁸And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink.

³⁹So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

⁴²But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.