Genesis
30
- When Rachel saw that she was not bearing
Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob,
"Give me children, or I'll die !"
- Jacob became angry with her and said, "Am
I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children ?"
- Then she said, "Here is Bilhah, my
maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that
through her I too can build a family."
- So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a
wife. Jacob slept with her,
- and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
- Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated
me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son." Because of this she
named him Dan.
- Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again
and bore Jacob a second son.
- Then Rachel said, "I have had a great
struggle with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali.
- When Leah saw that she had stopped having
children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
- Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
- Then Leah said, "What good fortune!"
So she named him Gad.
- Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second
son.
- Then Leah said, "How happy I am! The
women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.
- During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into
the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother
Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."
- But she said to her, "Wasn't it enough
that you took away my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?"
"Very well," Rachel said, "he can sleep with you tonight in
return for your son's mandrakes."
- So when Jacob came in from the fields that
evening, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me," she
said. "I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with
her that night.
- God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant
and bore Jacob a fifth son.
- Then Leah said, "God has rewarded me
for giving my maidservant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.
- Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth
son.
- Then Leah said, "God has presented
me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because
I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.
- Some time later she gave birth to a daughter
and named her Dinah.
- Then God remembered Rachel; he listened
to her and opened her womb.
- She became pregnant and gave birth to a
son and said, "God has taken away my disgrace."
- She named him Joseph, and said, "May
the LORD add to me another son."
- After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob
said to Laban, "Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
- Give me my wives and children, for whom
I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I've done
for you."
- But Laban said to him, "If I have found
favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD
has blessed me because of you."
- He added, "Name your wages, and I will
pay them."
- Jacob said to him, "You know how I
have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
- The little you had before I came has increased
greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when
may I do something for my own household ?"
- "What shall I give you?" he asked.
"Don't give me anything," Jacob replied. "But if you will do
this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over
them:
- Let me go through all your flocks today
and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb
and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
- And my honesty will testify for me in the
future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession
that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will
be considered stolen."
- "Agreed," said Laban. "Let
it be as you have said."
- That same day he removed all the male goats
that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats
(all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed
them in the care of his sons.
- Then he put a three-day journey between
himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban's flocks.
- Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches
from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling
the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
- Then he placed the peeled branches in all
the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks
when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
- they mated in front of the branches. And
they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
- Jacob set apart the young of the flock by
themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that
belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put
them with Laban's animals.
- Whenever the stronger females were in heat,
Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they
would mate near the branches,
- but if the animals were weak, he would not
place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to
Jacob.
- In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous
and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels
and donkeys.
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