| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. "Give me sons, or I will die!" she said to Jacob. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld children from you?" |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3Then she said, "Here is my slave Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she'll bear children for me so that through her I too can build a family." |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4So Rachel gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; yes, He has heard me and given me a son," and she named him Dan. |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Rachel's slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Rachel said, "In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won," and she named him Naphtali. |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Leah's slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11Then Leah said, "What good fortune!" and she named him Gad. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12When Leah's slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13Leah said, "I am happy that the women call me happy," so she named him Asher. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15But Leah replied to her, "Isn't it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son's mandrakes?"" Well," Rachel said, "you can sleep with him tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes." |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So Jacob slept with her that night. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18Leah said, "God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband," and she named him Issachar. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. " |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20God has given me a good gift," Leah said. "This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him," and she named him Zebulun. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Later, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23She conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my shame." |
| 24[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 24She named him Joseph: "May the LORD add another son to me." |
| 25[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 25After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. |
| 26[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 26Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go. You know how hard I have worked for you." |
| 27[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 27But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your sight, stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you." |
| 28[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 28Then Laban said, "Name your wages, and I will pay them." |
| 29[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 29So Jacob said to him, "You know what I have done for you and your herds. |
| 30[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 30For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The LORD has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?" |
| 31[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 31Laban asked, "What should I give you?" And Jacob said, "You don't need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock. |
| 32[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 32Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-colored sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages. |
| 33[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 33In the future when you come to check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me. If I have any female goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not black, they will be considered stolen."" |
| 34[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 34Good," said Laban. "Let it be as you have said." |
| 35[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 35That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats--every one that had any white on it--and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them. |
| 36[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 36He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban's flock. |
| 37[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 37Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. |
| 38[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 38He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep--in the water channels where the sheep came to drink. And the sheep bred when they came to drink. |
| 39[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 39The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young. |
| 40[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 40Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked and the completely dark sheep in Laban's flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn't put them with Laban's sheep. |
| 41[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 41Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. |
| 42[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 42As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. |
| 43[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 43And the man became very rich. He had many flocks, male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys. |
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