Genesis 30

Now Rachel saw that she was not bearing {children} for Jacob, so Rachel envied her sister, and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, and if not, I will die!”

And Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept the fruit of the womb from you?” \*

Then she said, “Behold my slave woman Bilhah. Go to her so that she will bear {children} on my knees, and I also will be built up from her.”

And she gave to him Bilhah her maidservant as a wife, and Jacob went to her. \*

Then Bilhah conceived and bore a son for Jacob,

and Rachel said, “God has vindicated me, and indeed, he has listened to my voice and given to me a son!” For that {reason} she called his name Dan. \*

Then Bilhah the maidservant of Rachel conceived again and bore a second son for Jacob.

So Rachel said, “{With} mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister. Indeed I have prevailed!” And she called his name Naphtali. \*

Now Leah saw that she had ceased from bearing {children}, so she took Zilpah her maidservant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Then Zilpah the maidservant of Leah bore a son for Jacob,

and Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she called his name Gad. \*

Then Zilpah the maidservant of Leah bore a second son for Jacob,

and Leah said, “How blessed I am! For women will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher. \*

Then in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field, and he brought them to Leah his mother. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give to me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

But she said to her, “Is it a small matter you have taken my husband? And would you also take my son’s mandrakes?” Then Rachel said, “Therefore he may lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.” \*

Then Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come to me, because I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her during that night,

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

Then Leah said, “God has given {me} my reward because I gave my maidservant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. \*

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

And Leah said, “God has presented me a good present. This time my husband will honor me because I have born six sons for him.” So she called his name Zebulun.

Then later she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. \*

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

Then she conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace!”

And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May God add another son to me.” \*

Then it happened, after Rachel bore Joseph, then Jacob said to Laban, “Send me off, so that I may go to my place and to my land.

Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, so that I may go. For you yourself know my service that I have served you.” \*

Then Laban said to him, “Please {stay}, if I have found favor in your eyes. I have learned by divination that God has blessed me because of you.”

Then he said, “Name your wages to me, and I will give {them}.” \*

And he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have been with me.

For {there was} little that was yours before me, and it has prospered to abundance, and God has blessed you at my feet. But now, when will I also do something for my household?” \*

Then he said, “What should I give to you?” And Jacob said, “Do not give anything to me. If you will do this thing for me, I will continue tending your flock{s} watching over {them}:

I will pass through all your flock{s} today to remove from there every speckled and spotted lamb and every dark-colored lamb among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled {young} among the goats. And that will be my wages. \*

So my righteousness will testify for me in future days when you go over my wages in front of you: any that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark-colored among the sheep, it was stolen {if it is} with me.”

And Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.” \*

Then on that day he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, any that {had} white on it, and all the dark-colored {ones} among the lambs. Then he gave {them} into the hand of his sons,

and he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob was tending the rest of Laban’s flock{s}. \*

Then Jacob took for himself fresh-cut branches of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that {was} inside the branches.

Then he put the branches that he had peeled in the troughs, in the water troughs where the flock{s} came to drink, in front of the flock{s}. And they were in heat when they came to drink, \*

and the flock{s} would mate by the branches, and the flock{s} would bear streaked, speckled, and spotted {young}.

Then Jacob set apart the lambs, and he made the faces of the flock{s} look at the streaked and all the dark-colored {animals} in the flock{s} of Laban. And he put flocks for himself by themselves, and he did not put them with the flock{s} of Laban. \*

So it happened whenever the strong animals were in heat, then Jacob put the branches in the troughs before the eyes of the flocks so that they would mate by the branches.

But when the animals were weak, he did not put {them} {in}. So it was the weak {ones} {went} to Laban, and the strong {ones} to Jacob, \*

so that the man prospered very greatly, and he owned large flock{s}, and maidservants and menservants and camels and donkeys. \*