And Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, and Rachel was jealous of her sister. And she said to Jacob, “Give me sons — and if not, I am dead.”
And 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?”
And she said, “Look — my servant Bilhah. Go in to her, and she shall bear on my knees, and I too shall be built up from her.”
And she gave him Bilhah her servant as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
And Rachel said, “God has judged for me, and he has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.
And Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
And Rachel said, “Wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister — and I have prevailed.” And she called his name Naphtali.
Gad and Asher
And Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, and she took Zilpah her servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son.
And Leah said, “Fortune has come!” And she called his name Gad.
And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son.
And Leah said, “Happy am I — for the daughters will call me happy.” And she called his name Asher.
And Reuben went out in the days of the wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some, please, of your son’s mandrakes.”
And she said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband — and will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” And Rachel said, “Then he shall lie with you tonight, in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
And Jacob came in from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, “You are coming in to me — for I have hired you, hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.
Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah
And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
And Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I gave my servant to my husband.” And she called his name Issachar.
And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment. This time my husband will honor me, for I have borne him six sons.” And she called his name Zebulun.
And afterward she bore a daughter, and she called her name Dinah.
Joseph
And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
Jacob Prospers
And it happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me off, and let me go to my own place and to my land.
Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go — for you know my service, how I have served you.”
And Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes — I have learned by signs that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
And he said, “Name your wages to me, and I will give them.”
And he said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
For the little you had before me has broken out into abundance, and the LORD has blessed you at my every step. And now — when shall I provide for my own house too?”
And he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall give me nothing. If you will do this thing for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it:
let me pass through your whole flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep, and every dark sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats — and that shall be my wages.
And my righteousness will answer for me in a day to come, when you come concerning my wages before you: everything that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, or dark among the lambs — if it is with me, it is stolen.”
And Laban said, “Good — let it be as you have said.”
And that day he removed the striped and spotted male goats, and all the speckled and spotted female goats — every one with white on it — and every dark one among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
And he set a journey of three days between himself and Jacob. And Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
And Jacob took for himself fresh rods of poplar, and almond, and plane tree, and peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white that was on the rods.
And he set the rods that he had peeled in the channels, in the watering troughs where the flock came to drink, in front of the flock — and they bred when they came to drink.
And the flock bred by the rods, and the flock bore striped, speckled, and spotted young.
And Jacob separated the lambs, and turned the faces of the flock toward the striped and every dark one in Laban’s flock; and he set his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
And it happened, whenever the stronger of the flock bred, that Jacob would set the rods before the eyes of the flock in the channels, so that they would breed by the rods;
but with the feeble of the flock he would not set them. So the feeble were Laban’s, and the strong were Jacob’s.
And the man broke out exceedingly, and he had many flocks, and female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
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