Genesis 30

¹When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister . She said to Jacob , Give me children , or I shall die !

²Jacob’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 ?

³Then she said , Here is my servant Bilhah ; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf , that even I may have children through her.

⁴So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife , and Jacob went in to her.

⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son .

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

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

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

⁹When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children , she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife .

¹⁰Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son .

¹¹And Leah said , Good fortune has come! so she called his name Gad .

¹²Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son .

¹³And Leah said , Happy am I ! For women have called me happy . So she called his name Asher .

¹⁴In 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 , 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 ? Rachel said , Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes .

¹⁶When 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 .

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

¹⁸Leah said , God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband . So she called his name Issachar .

¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son .

²⁰Then Leah said , God has endowed me with a good endowment ; now my husband will honor 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 .

²³She conceived and bore a son and said , God has taken away my reproach .

²⁴And she called his name Joseph , saying , May the Lord add to me another son !

²⁵As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph , Jacob said to Laban , Send me away , that I may go to my own home and country .

²⁶Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go , for you know the service that I have given you.

²⁷But Laban said to him, If I have found favor in your sight , I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you .

²⁸Name your wages , and I will give it.

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

³⁰For 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 ?

³¹He said , What shall I give you? Jacob said , You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it:

³²let 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 they shall be my wages .

³³So 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 .

³⁴Laban said , Good ! Let it be as you have said .

³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted , and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted , every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black , and put them in the charge of his sons .

³⁶And he set a distance of three days ’ journey between himself and Jacob , and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock .

³⁷Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees , and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks .

³⁸He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs , that is, the watering places , where the flocks came to drink . And since they bred when they came to drink ,

³⁹the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped , speckled , and spotted .

⁴⁰And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban . He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock .

⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding , Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock , that they might breed among the sticks ,

⁴²but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s , and the stronger Jacob’s .

⁴³Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks , female servants and male servants , and camels and donkeys .