Genesis 30:5-43

5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has 12vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him 3Dan. 7Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8So Rachel said, “With 4mighty wrestlings I have 5wrestled 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, “6How fortunate!” So she named him 7Gad. 12Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Then Leah said, “8Happy am I! For women 9will call me happy.” So she named him 10Asher.

14Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found 11mandrakes 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 12wages 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 13will 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 14God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and 15opened her womb. 23So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has 16taken away my reproach.” 24She named him Joseph, saying, “17May the Lord 18give me another son.”

25Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “19Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26Give me my wives and my children 20for whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have 21rendered you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If now 22it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined 23that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” 28He 24continued, “25Name me your wages, and I will give it.” 29But he said to him, “26You yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have 27fared with me. 30For you had little before 28I came and it has 29increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you 30wherever 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 31speckled and spotted sheep and every black 32one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. 33So my 33honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my 34wages. 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, “35Good, 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 36care 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 37took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was 38in 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 39mated when they came to drink. 39So the flocks 40mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated the lambs, and 41made 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 42stronger of the flock 43were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might 44mate by the rods; 42but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the 45stronger Jacob’s. 43So 46the man 47became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.