The Sons of Jacob

1Then Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, so [†]she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.” 2Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3And she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah, go in to her that she may bear on my knees, that [†]through her I too may obtain children.” 4So she gave him her servant-woman Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has [†]rendered justice to me and has indeed listened to my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him [†]Dan. 7And Rachel’s servant-woman Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8So Rachel said, “With [†]mighty wrestlings I have [†]wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

9Then Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, so she took her servant-woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Then Leah said, “[†]How fortunate!” So she named him [†]Gad. 12And Leah’s servant-woman Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Then Leah said, “[†]Happy am I! For women will call me happy.” So she named him [†]Asher.

14And in the days 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.” 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 will lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” 16Then Jacob came in from the field in the evening. And 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. 17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18And Leah said, “God has given me my [†]wages because I gave my servant-woman to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19Then Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20And Leah said, “God has gifted me a good gift; this time my husband [†]will honor me because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24And she named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh [†]give me another son.”

Jacob Names His Wages

25Now it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own land. 26Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have [†]rendered you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; I have interpreted an omen that Yahweh has blessed me on your account.” 28And he continued to say, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.” 29But he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have [†]fared with me. 30For you had little before [†]I came, but it has spread out to a multitude, and Yahweh has blessed you [†]at every step of mine. 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 speckled and spotted sheep and every black [†]one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. 33So my righteousness will answer for me later, when you come concerning my [†]wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34And Laban said, “Behold, [†]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 [†]care of his sons. 36And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37Then Jacob [†]took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was [†]in the rods. 38And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the trough, 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 brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40And Jacob separated the lambs, and he [†]made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he set his own herds apart and did not set them with Laban’s flock. 41Now it would be that, whenever the [†]stronger of the flock [†]were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the trough, so that they might [†]mate by the rods; 42but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the [†]stronger Jacob’s. 43So the man spread out exceedingly and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.