Genesis 30 · The Lantern

Dan and Naphtali

And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

And she said, Look my maid Bilhah, go in to her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.

And she gave him Bilhah her maidservant to wife: and Jacob went in to her.

And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son: therefore she called his name Dan.

And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.

Gad and Asher

When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.

And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a son.

And Leah said, A troop comes: and she called his name Gad.

And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a second son.

And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray you, of your son’s mandrakes.

And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? and would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with you to night for your son’s mandrakes.

And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, You must come in to me; for surely I have 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 the fifth son.

And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son.

And Leah said, God has 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.

And afterwards she bore a daughter, and 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 reproach:

And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.

Jacob Prospers

And it happened, when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go: for you know my service which I have done you.

And Laban said to him, I pray you, if I have found favor in your eyes, stay: for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.

And he said, Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.

And he said to him, You know how I have served you, and how your cattle was with me.

For it was little which you had before I came, and it is now increased to a multitude; and the LORD has blessed you since my coming: and now when shall I provide for my own house also?

And 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 feed and keep your flock:

I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there 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.

So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before your face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

And Laban said, Look, I would it might be according to your word.

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.

And he set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and peeled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

And he set the rods which he had peeled 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.

And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

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 to Laban’s cattle.

And it happened, whenever 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.

But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and donkeys.