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. 7And Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8So Rachel said, “With 4mighty wrestling I have 5wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” 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. 10And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Then Leah said, “6How fortunate!” So she named him 7Gad. 12And Leah’s slave 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 11mandrake fruits 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 sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must have relations with me, for I have indeed hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. 17God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Then Leah said, “God has given me my 12reward, because I gave my slave to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; finally my husband 13will acknowledge me as his wife, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21Afterward she gave birth to a daughter, and named her Dinah.

22Then 14God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and 15opened her womb. 23So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, “God has 16taken away my disgrace.” 24And she named him Joseph, saying, “17May the Lord 18give me another son.”

25Now it came about, when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “19Send me away, so 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 go; for you yourself know my service which I have 21rendered you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If 22it pleases you at all, stay with me; I have determined by divination 23that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” 28He 24continued, “25Name me your wages, and I will give them.” 29But Jacob said to him, “26You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock 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 or spotted sheep and every black sheep among the lambs, and the spotted or speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages. 33So my 32honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my 33wages. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34Laban said, “34Good, let it be according to your word.” 35So he removed on that day the striped or spotted male goats, and all the speckled or spotted female goats, every one with white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the 35care 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 36took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was 37in the rods. 38He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs, that is, in the watering channels where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. 39So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks delivered striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. 40Then Jacob separated the lambs, and 38made 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 stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the drinking troughs, so that they would mate by the rods; 42but when the flock was sickly, he did not put them in; so the sickly were Laban’s, and the stronger were Jacob’s. 43So 39the man 40became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.