Genesis 30
1 When Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, she was jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me sons! If there are none, I am dying." 2 Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept the fruit of the womb from you?" 3 She said, "Here is my slave Bilhah. Sleep with her, and let her give birth on my knees. Then I too will be built up through her." 4 She gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob slept with her. 5 Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob. 6 Rachel said, "God has judged my case. He has also heard my voice and given me a son." That is why she named him Dan. 7 Rachel's maid Bilhah became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 8 Rachel said, "I have struggled with my sister with struggles of elohim, and I have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah's maid Zilpah gave birth to a son for Jacob. 11 Leah said, "Fortune has come!" She named him Gad. 12 Leah's maid Zilpah gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 13 Leah said, "How happy I am! For women call me happy." She named him Asher. 14 During the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. He brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." 15 But Leah said to her, "Is it a small thing that you took my husband? Will you take my son's mandrakes too?" Rachel said, "Then he will sleep with you tonight, in return for your son's mandrakes." 16 When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him. She said, "You must come to me, because I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." He slept with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. 18 Leah said, "God has given me my wage, because I gave my maid to my husband." She named him Issachar. 19 Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. 20 Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun. 21 Afterward she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, "God has taken away my shame." 24 She named him Joseph, saying, "May the LORD add another son for me."
25 After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, so that I can go to my own place and my own land. 26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know the service I have given you." 27 Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes— I have practiced divination, and the LORD has blessed me because of you." 28 He said, "Name your wage, and I will pay it." 29 Jacob said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock has done in my care. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has grown into plenty. The LORD has blessed you wherever I have gone. And now, when will I also provide for my own household?" 31 Laban asked, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will go back to shepherding your flock and keeping watch over it. 32 Let me go through your whole flock today. I will remove from it every speckled and spotted animal, every dark one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. That will be my wage.
33 My justice will answer for me in days to come, when you come to look over my wage in front of you. Any goat with me that is not speckled and spotted, and any lamb with me that is not dark, will be counted as stolen." 34 Laban said, "Very well. If only it may be as you have said." 35 That same day he removed the striped and spotted male goats. He also removed all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one that had white on it, and every dark one among the lambs. He put them into the hands of his sons. 36 He put a three days' journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob went on shepherding the rest of Laban's flock. 37 Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar, almond, and plane trees. He peeled white stripes in them, laying bare the white wood on the sticks. 38 He set the sticks he had peeled in the channels, the water troughs where the flock came to drink, right in front of the flock. And the animals were in heat when they came to drink. 39 The animals were in heat in front of the sticks, and the flock gave birth to young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob separated the lambs. He turned the faces of the flock toward the striped and all the dark animals in Laban's flock. He set apart droves for himself alone and did not put them with Laban's flock.
41 Whenever the stronger animals of the flock were in heat, Jacob would put the sticks in the channels in front of their eyes. He did this so that they would be in heat among the sticks. 42 But when the animals were weak, he did not put the sticks there. The weak ones were Laban's, and the strong ones were Jacob's. 43 The man grew very, very rich. He had large flocks, maids and slaves, and camels and donkeys.