1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!”

2 Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

3 Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.”

4 So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.

5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son”; therefore she named him Dan.

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

8 Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed”; so she named him Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10 Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

11 And Leah said, “Good fortune!” so she named him Gad.

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

13 And Leah said, “Happy am I! For the women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.

Genesis 30:1-13, NRSV Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1989, 1993 by the National Council of the Churches of Christ.
Genesis 29
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