Genesis 30

The Sons of Jacob

1Now when Rachel saw that 1she bore Jacob no children, 2she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “3Give me children, or else I die.” 2Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has 4withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3She said, “5Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may 6bear on my knees, that 78through her I too may have children.” 4So 9she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has 1011vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him 12Dan. 7Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8So Rachel said, “With 13mighty wrestlings I have 14wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Then Leah said, “15How fortunate!” So she named him 16Gad. 12Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Then Leah said, “17Happy am I! For women 18will call me happy.” So she named him 19Asher.

14Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found 20mandrakes 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 for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then 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.” So he lay with her that night. 17God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Then Leah said, “God has given me my 21wages because I gave my maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband 22will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

22Then 23God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and 24opened her womb. 23So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has 25taken away my reproach.” 24She named him Joseph, saying, “26May the Lord 27give me another son.”

Jacob Prospers

25Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “28Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26Give me my wives and my children 29for whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have 30rendered you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If now 31it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined 32that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” 28He 33continued, “34Name me your wages, and I will give it.” 29But he said to him, “35You yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have 36fared with me. 30For you had little before 37I came and it has 38increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you 39wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: 32let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every 40speckled and spotted sheep and every black 41one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. 33So my 42honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my 43wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34Laban said, “44Good, let it be according to your word.” 35So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the 45care of his sons. 36And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37Then Jacob 46took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was 47in the rods. 38He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they 48mated when they came to drink. 39So the flocks 49mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated the lambs, and 50made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41Moreover, whenever the 51stronger of the flock 52were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might 53mate by the rods; 42but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the 54stronger Jacob’s. 43So 55the man 56became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.