Genesis 30
30
1#Ge 29:31; 37:11When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die.”
2#Ge 16:2; 1Sa 1:5Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3#Ge 50:23; Job 3:12Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Have relations with her so that she may bear a child on my knees,#From the Septuagint, a cloak with long sleeves, a full-length cloak, or an embroidered cloak, showing favoritism. so that I may also have children through her.”
4So she gave him Bilhah her maidservant as a wife, and Jacob had relations with her. 5Bilhah conceived and gave Jacob a son. 6#Ps 35:24; 43:1Rachel said, “God has vindicated me, and He has also heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
7Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again and gave Jacob a second son. 8#Ge 49:21; Mt 4:13Then Rachel said, “With great wrestling have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.
9#Ge 30:4When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave Jacob a son. 11#Ge 49:19Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she called his name Gad.
12Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave Jacob a second son. 13#Lk 1:48; Ge 49:20Then Leah said, “Happy am I, for women will call me happy.” So she called his name Asher.
14#SS 7:13At the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15#Nu 16:13Leah said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”
So Rachel said, “All right, he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep with me, because I have paid for you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he slept with her that night.
17God listened to Leah, and she conceived and gave Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has given me my reward because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.
19Leah conceived again and gave Jacob a sixth son. 20#Mt 4:13; Ge 35:23Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will dwell with me, because I have given him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.
21Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter and called her name Dinah.
22#Ge 29:31; 8:1; 1Sa 1:19–20Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23#Isa 4:1; Lk 1:25She conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24#Ge 35:24; 37:2And she called his name Joseph, saying, “The Lord will add to me another son.”
Jacob’s Agreement With Laban
25#Ge 24:54; 24:56When Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, so that I may go to my own place, to my country. 26#Ge 29:30; Hos 12:12Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. For you know the service that I have given you.”
27#Ge 26:24; Isa 61:9Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. For I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.” 28#Ge 29:15He said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”
29#Ge 31:6; 31:38–40Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. 30#1Ti 5:8For you had little before I came, and it is now increased to a multitude. The Lord has blessed you since I came, and now when may I also provide for my own house?”
31Laban said, “What may I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You may not give me anything, but if you will do this one thing for me, I will continue to feed and keep your flock. 32#Ge 31:8I will pass through all your flock today, removing from it all the speckled and spotted sheep, and every brown sheep from among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. These shall be my wages. 33So my integrity will answer for me in time to come. When you come to examine my wages, every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep that are with me will be considered stolen.”
34Laban said, “Agreed. Let it be according to your word.” 35He removed that day the male goats that were striped and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons. 36He put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37Then Jacob took rods of fresh-cut poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white which was in the rods. 38He set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink, so that they would mate when they came to drink. 39The flocks mated before the rods and gave birth to young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the brown in the flock of Laban. He put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s sheep. 41Whenever the stronger sheep mated, Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the sheep in the troughs, so that they might mate among the rods. 42But when the livestock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the weaker were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43#Ge 24:35; 26:13–14The man became exceedingly prosperous and had many sheep and female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys.
Military Bible Association
Genesis 30
30
1When Rachel realized she was unable to give Jacob any children she was jealous of her sister. She complained to Jacob, “I'll die if you don't give me children!”
2Jacob became angry with Rachel and told her, “Am I God? Do you think I'm the one stopping you having children?”
3“Here's my personal maid Bilhah,” Rachel replied. “Sleep with her and she can have children for me so I'll have a family too.” 4She gave her personal maid Bilhah to him as a wife and Jacob slept with her. 5Bilhah became pregnant and had a son for Jacob. 6Rachel said, “God has judged in my favor! He listened to me and gave me a son.” So she named him Dan.#30:6. Dan means “judge.” 7Rachel's personal maid Bilhah became pregnant again and had a second son for Jacob. 8Rachel said, “I've had a hard struggle with my sister, but I've won.” So she named him Naphtali.#30:8. Naphtali means “struggle.”
9Leah realized she wasn't having any more children, so she gave her personal maid Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. 10Zilpah had a son for Jacob. 11Leah said, “I'm really fortunate!” So she named him Gad.#30:11. Gad means “fortunate.” 12Leah's personal maid Zilpah became pregnant again and had a second son for Jacob. 13Leah said, “I'm so happy, and the other women will say I'm happy too!” So she named him Asher.#30:13. Asher means “happy.”
14At the time of the wheat harvest Reuben found some mandrake plants when he was out in the fields. He took them back to his mother Leah. Rachel asked Leah, “Please give me some of the mandrakes your son found.”
15“Aren't you satisfied with stealing my husband?” Leah replied. “Are you going to take my son's mandrakes too?”
“Fine, he can sleep with you tonight if you give me some mandrakes in return,” Rachel responded.
16When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You have to sleep with me because I've paid for you with my son's mandrakes,” she told him. So he slept with her that night. 17God heard Leah's request, and she became pregnant and had a fifth son for Jacob. 18Leah said, “The Lord has rewarded me for giving my personal maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.#30:18. Issachar means “reward.” 19Then Leah became pregnant again and had a sixth son for Jacob. 20Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will honor me because I've given him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.#30:20. Zebulun is related to both the words for “gift” and “honor.” 21Later she had a daughter she named Dinah.
22Then God paid attention to Rachel and listened to her appeals, and helped her to have children. 23She became pregnant and had a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said. 24She named him Joseph,#30:24. Joseph may mean both “may he add,” and “he takes away,” referring to Rachel's “disgrace.” saying, “May the Lord give me an additional son.”
25Once Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Let me leave so I can return to my home and my own country. 26Give me my wives and children because I worked for you to have them. Let me go now because you know very well how much work I've done for you.”
27“Please be so kind as to stay,” Laban replied, “because I have discovered#30:27. “Discovered”: or “learned by divination.” that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28Then Laban continued, “Tell me how much to pay you and I'll give it to you.”
29“You certainly know how much work I've done for you, and how well your flocks have done under my care. 30You hardly had anything before I arrived, but now you have so much! The Lord has blessed you through what I've done. When am I going to be able to provide for my own family?”
31“Well, what do you propose I give you?” Laban asked again.
“You don't have to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you want to do something for me, then how about this: I'll go on looking after your flocks, making sure they're fed. 32Let me go through your flocks today and take all the sheep that are speckled or spotted, and all the dark ones, as well as all the speckled and spotted goats. They'll be my wages. 33In the future you'll be able to prove that I've been honest. When you check my flock, any goats that don't have speckles or spots, or any sheep that aren't dark will be considered stolen from you.”
34“Very good,” Laban agreed. “We'll do as you say.” 35However, the same day Laban went and removed all the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats, and all the dark sheep. He had his sons look after them and sent them away— 36a three day journey between them and Jacob, while Jacob was looking after the rest of Laban's flocks.
37Then Jacob cut some sticks from poplar, almond, and plane trees that had white wood under the bark. He peeled off some of the bark, making the sticks look streaked with white. 38He put the sticks he'd peeled in the water troughs where the flocks came to drink because that's where they mated. 39The flocks mated in front of the sticks and gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated all these ones out. Then he made his flock face towards those in Laban's flock that were streaked and dark. This is the way he kept his flocks apart from Laban's flock.
41When the strong females were ready to breed, Jacob put the sticks in the troughs where the flocks could see them when they mated. 42He didn't do this for the weaker females. The weaker ones went to Laban, and the strong ones went to Jacob. 43In this way Jacob became an extremely rich man with large flocks, and many male and female slaves, camels, and donkeys.
Dr. Jonathan Gallagher. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Unported License. Version 4.3. For corrections send email to jonathangallagherfbv@gmail.com