1When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will 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, and that I too may be built up through her.”
4So she gave him Bilhah her servant as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
6Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
7And Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.
9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
10And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son.
11Then Leah said, “With fortune!” So she called his name Gad.
12And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son.
13Then Leah said, “How happy I am! For the daughters will call me happy.” So she called his name Asher.
14In the days of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field, and he brought them to Leah his mother. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15But she said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you also take my son’s mandrakes?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, 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.
18Then Leah said, “God has given my wages, because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.
19And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.
21And afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
22Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
23And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
24And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add to me another son.”
25Now when Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my land.”
26“Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may go; for you know my service that I have rendered you.”
27But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes—I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you.”
28And he said, “Name your wages to me, and I will give it.”
29And he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me.”
30For what you had before I came was little, and it has burst forth into abundance, and Yahweh has blessed you wherever I set foot. But now, when shall I also provide for my own house?
31So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:
32Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep, and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.
33And my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when you come to look over my wages before you: every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or dark-colored among the lambs, it is stolen, if it is with me.
34And Laban said, “Look, may it be according to your word.”
35But that day he removed the striped and spotted male goats, and all the speckled and spotted female goats — every one that had white on it — and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
36And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
37Then Jacob took for himself fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane tree, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white that was on the rods.
38And he set the rods that he had peeled in the troughs, in the watering channels where the flock came to drink, right in front of the flock; and they would go into heat when they came to drink.
39So the flock bred before the rods, and the flock bore striped, speckled, and spotted young.
40And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flock toward the striped and every dark-colored one in Laban’s flock; and he set apart droves for himself alone, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41And whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would set the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs, so that they would breed among the rods;
42but when the flock were feeble, he would not set them; so the feeble came to be Laban’s, and the strong Jacob’s.
43So the man increased exceedingly greatly, and he came to have large flocks, and female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
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