Genesis 30:1-23

1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

2Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God? He has withheld offspring from you!”

3Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she’ll bear children for me so that through her I too can build a family.”

4So Rachel gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her.

5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, he has heard me and given me a son,” so she named him Dan.

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

8Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali.

9When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

11Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” and she named him Gad.

12When Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,

13Leah said, “I am happy that the women call me happy,” so she named him Asher.

14Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15But Leah replied to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?” “Well then,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

16When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with her that night.

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

18Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband,” and she named him Issachar.

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

20“God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun.

21Later, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

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

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