Genesis 30Book 1 of 66 · 43 verses · MBT primary, NKJV fallback where MBT pending
Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister and pleaded with Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die!"
Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
So she said, "Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that through her I too may have children."
So she gave him Bilhah her servant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.
And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me and has also heard my voice and given me a son." Therefore she called his name Dan.
And Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
Then Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed." So she called his name Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as wife.
And Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
Then Leah said, "Good fortune has come!" So she called his name Gad.
And Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
Then Leah said, "I am happy, for the women will call me blessed." So she named him Asher.
Now Reuben went out in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah, and Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."
But she said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" And Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes."
When Jacob came home 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.
God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Leah said, "God has rewarded me with my wages, because I gave my maid to my husband." So she called his name Issachar.
Then Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
And 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.
Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
Then God remembered Rachel, and God answered her and opened her womb.
And she conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my disgrace."
So she named him Joseph, and said, "May the LORD add to me another son."
After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home and to my country."
Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know very well the service I have rendered you.
And Laban said to him, "Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you."
Then he said, "Name me your wages, and I will pay it."
So Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me.
For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased abundantly; the LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. And now, when shall I also provide for my own household?
So he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "You don't need to give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flocks.
Let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.
So my honesty will testify for me in the future when you come to check on 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.
And Laban said, "Good, let it be according to your word!"
So he removed that very day the male goats that were striped and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and all the dark-colored ones among the lambs, and placed them in the care of his sons.
Then he put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob continued to care for the rest of Laban's flocks.
Now Jacob took for himself fresh branches of poplar and almond and plane trees, peeled white streaks in them, and exposed the white which was in the branches.
Jacob set the branches which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, and they mated when they came to drink.
So the flocks mated in front of the branches, and the flocks brought forth young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
Then Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban, but he put his own herds apart by themselves and did not put them with Laban's flock.
And it came to pass, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might breed among the rods.
But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the weaker sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.
Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.