1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel
envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
2 And
Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in
God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
3 And
she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my
knees, that I may also have children by her.
4 And
she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.
5 And
Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.
6 And
Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given
me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.
7 And
Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son.
8 And
Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have
prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.
9 When
Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her
Jacob to wife.
10 And
Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son.
11 And
Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.
12 And
Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son.
13 And
Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called
his name Asher.
14 And
Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and
brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray
thee, of thy son's mandrakes.
15 And
she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my
husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said,
Therefore he shall lie with thee to night for thy son's mandrakes.
16 And
Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and
said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's
mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
17 And
God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.
18 And
Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my
husband: and she called his name Issachar.
19 And
Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son.
20 And
Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband
dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name
Zebulun.
21 And
afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.
22 And
God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
23 And
she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
24 And
she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.
25 And
it came to pass, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send
me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.
26 Give me my
wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou
knowest my service which I have done thee.
27 And
Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I
have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
28 And
he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.
29 And
he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was
with me.
30 For it was little
which thou hadst before I came, and it is now increased
unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when
shall I provide for mine own house also?
31 And
he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any
thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep
thy flock:
32 I
will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled
and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted
and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.
33 So
shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my
hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the
goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.
34 And
Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
35 And
he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the
she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white
in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into
the hand of his sons.
36 And
he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of
Laban's flocks.
37 And
Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and
pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in
the rods.
38 And
he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the
watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when
they came to drink.
39 And
the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked,
speckled, and spotted.
40 And
Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the
ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks
by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle.
41 And
it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid
the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive
among the rods.
42 But
when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's,
and the stronger Jacob's.
43 And
the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and
menservants, and camels, and asses.
