Genesis 30

1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’

2Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?’

3Then she said, ‘Here is Bilhah, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and I too can build a family through her.’

4So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her, 5and she became pregnant and bore him a son. 6Then Rachel said, ‘God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.’ Because of this she named him Dan.#30:6 Dan here means he has vindicated.

7Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Then Rachel said, ‘I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.’ So she named him Naphtali.#30:8 Naphtali means my struggle.

9When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Then Leah said, ‘What good fortune!’#30:11 Or ‘A troop is coming!’ So she named him Gad.#30:11 Gad can mean good fortune or a troop.

12Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Then Leah said, ‘How happy I am! The women will call me happy.’ So she named him Asher.#30:13 Asher means happy.

14During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.’

15But she said to her, ‘Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?’

‘Very well,’ Rachel said, ‘he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.’

16So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. ‘You must sleep with me,’ she said. ‘I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.’ So he slept with her that night.

17God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Then Leah said, ‘God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.’ So she named him Issachar.#30:18 Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for reward.

19Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Then Leah said, ‘God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honour, because I have borne him six sons.’ So she named him Zebulun.#30:20 Zebulun probably means honour.

21Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive. 23She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.’ 24She named him Joseph,#30:24 Joseph means may he add. and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.’

Jacob’s flocks increase

25After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me on my way so that I can go back to my own homeland. 26Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.’

27But Laban said to him, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.’ 28He added, ‘Name your wages, and I will pay them.’

29Jacob said to him, ‘You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?’

31‘What shall I give you?’ he asked.

‘Don’t give me anything,’ Jacob replied. ‘But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: 32let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-coloured lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-coloured, will be considered stolen.’

34‘Agreed,’ said Laban. ‘Let it be as you have said.’ 35That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-coloured lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink, 39they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 40Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-coloured animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. 41Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so that they would mate near the branches, 42but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob. 43In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® (Anglicised), NIV®

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Genesis 30

CHAPTER 30

1Forsooth Rachel saw, that she was unfruitful, and she had envy to her sister, and said to her husband, Give thou free children to me, else I shall die.

2To whom Jacob was wroth, and answered, Whether I am for God, which have deprived thee from the fruit of thy womb?

3And she said, I have an handmaid Bilhah; enter thou [in] to her that she child on my knees, and that I have sons of her.

4And she gave to him Bilhah into matrimony; and when her husband had entered [in] to her,

5she conceived, and childed a son.

6And Rachel said, The Lord hath deemed to me, and hath heard my prayer, and gave a son to me; and therefore she called his name Dan.

7And again Bilhah conceived, and childed another son,

8for whom Rachel said, The Lord hath made me like my sister, and I [have] waxed strong; and she called him Naphtali.

9Leah feeled that she ceased to bear child, and she gave Zilpah, her handmaid, to her husband.

10And when Zilpah, after conceiving, childed a son,

11Leah said, Blessedly; and therefore she called his name Gad.

12Also Zilpah childed another son,

13and Leah said, This is for my bliss, for all women shall say me blessed; therefore she called him Asher.

14Forsooth Reuben went out into the field in the time of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes, which he brought to Leah, his mother. And Rachel said, Give thou to me a part of the mandrakes of thy son.

15Leah answered, Whether it seemeth little to thee, that thou hast ravished my husband from me, no but thou take also the mandrakes of my son? Rachel said, The husband sleep with thee in this night for the mandrakes of thy son.

16And when Jacob came again from the field at the eventide, Leah went out into his meeting, and said, Thou shalt enter [in] to me, for I have hired thee with hire for the mandrakes of my son. He slept with her in that night;

17and God heard her prayers, and she conceived, and childed the fifth son;

18and said, God hath given meed to me, for I gave mine handmaid to mine husband; and she called his name Issachar.

19Again Leah conceived, and childed the sixth son,

20and said, The Lord hath made me rich with a good dower; also in this time mine husband shall be with me, for I have engendered six sons to him; and therefore she called his name Zebulun.

21After whom she childed a daughter, Dinah by name.

22Also the Lord had mind on Rachel, and he heard her, and opened her womb.

23And she conceived, and childed a son, and said, God hath taken away my shame;

24and she called his name Joseph, and said, The Lord give to me another son.

25Soothly when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his wife’s father, Deliver thou me, that I turn again to my country, and to my land.

26Give thou to me my wives, and my free children, for which I have served thee, that I go; forsooth thou knowest the service by which I have served thee.

27Laban said to him, Find I grace in thy sight; I have learned by experience, that God hath blessed me for thee;

28ordain thou the meed which I shall give to thee.

29And Jacob answered, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how great thy possession was in mine hands;

30thou haddest little before that I came to thee, and now thou art made rich, and the Lord [hath] blessed thee at mine entering; therefore it is just that I purvey sometime also for mine house.

31And Laban said, What shall I give to thee? And Jacob said, I will or desire nothing, that is, of thy gift, but if thou doest that that I ask, again I shall feed and keep thy sheep.

32Go about all thy flocks, and separate thou all diversely-coloured sheep, and of spotted fleeces, and whatever thing shall be of dun hue, and spotted, and diverse of colour, as well in sheep as in goats; that shall be my meed.

33And my rightfulness [or rightwise-ness] shall answer to me tomorrow, when the time of covenant shall come before thee; and all that be not diverse, and spotted, and dunned, as well in sheep as in goats, be found at me thou shalt reprove me of theft.

34And Laban said, I have it acceptable that that thou askest.

35And Laban separated in that day [the] goats, and sheep, goat bucks, and rams, diverse and spotted. Soothly he betook all the flock of one colour, that is, of white, and of black fleece, into the hands of his sons;

36and he set the space of a way of three days betwixt his sons, and the husband of his daughters, that fed his other flocks.

37Therefore Jacob took green rods of poplars, and of almonds, and of planes, and in part he did away the rind of them; and when the rinds were drawn away, either shaved, whiteness appeared in these that were made bare; soothly those that were whole dwelled green, and by this manner the colour was made diverse.

38And Jacob put those rods in the troughs, where the water was poured out, that when the flocks should come to drink,

39they should have the rods before their eyes, and they should conceive in [the] sight of the rods. And it was done that in that heat of riding, or engendering, the sheep should behold those rods, and that they should bring forth spotted beasts, and diverse, and besprinkled with diverse colour.

40And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the [water] troughs, before the eyes of the rams. Soothly all the white and [the] black were Laban’s; soothly all the others were Jacob’s; for the flocks were separated betwixt themselves.

41Therefore when the sheep were ridden in the first time, Jacob put the rods in the water troughs before the eyes of rams, and of ewe sheep, that they should conceive in the sight of the rods.

42Forsooth when the late mixing, or engendering, and the last conceivings were, Jacob put not those rods; and those that were late engendered, were made Laban’s, and those that were of the first time engendered, were Jacob’s.

43And Jacob was made full rich, and had many flocks, handmaids, and menservants, camels, and asses.

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