Genesis 30:10-43 ▼

10 And Zilpah, the maidservant of Leah, bore to Jacob a son.

11 And Leah said, “How fortunate!” And she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah, the maidservant of Leah, bore a second son to Jacob.

13 And Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me happy.” And she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went in the days of the harvest of wheat, and he found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, “Please give to me some of the mandrakes of your son.”

15 And she said to her, “Is it a small matter your taking my husband, that you would also take the mandrakes of my son?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for the mandrakes of your son.”

16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and she said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with the mandrakes of my son.” And he lay with her that night.

17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and she bore to Jacob a fifth son.

18 And Leah said, “God has given me my reward, because I have given my maidservant to my husband.” And she called his name Issachar.

19 And Leah conceived again, and she bore a sixth son to Jacob.

20 And Leah said, “God has endowed me—me—with a good endowment; this time my husband will honor me, for I have borne to him six sons.” And she called his name Zebulun.

21 And afterward she bore a daughter, and she called her name Dinah.

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and He opened her womb.

23 And she conceived, and she bore a son and she said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May YHWH add to me another son.”

25 And it came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my place and to my land.

26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and I will go. For you—you know my service which I have served you.”

27 And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes. I have learned by divination that YHWH has blessed me for your sake.”

28 And he said, “Specify your wage to me, and I will give it.”

29 And he said to him, “You—you know how I have served you, and how your livestock has been with me.

30 For little was what you had before me, and it has burst forth into a multitude, and YHWH has blessed you at my foot. And now, when shall I provide also for my own house?”

31 And he said, “What shall I give to you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give to me anything. If you will do for me this thing, I will turn back; I will pasture your flock, I will keep it.

32 I will pass through all your flock today; remove from there every one speckled and spotted, and every brown one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And these shall be my wage.

33 And my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when you come upon my wage before your face—every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs—it was stolen if it is with me.”

34 And Laban said, “Behold—oh that it were according to your word.”

35 And that day he removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the brown among the lambs, and he gave them into the hand of his sons.

36 And he put a journey of three days between himself and between Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the flock of Laban, the remaining ones.

37 And Jacob took for himself rods of fresh poplar and of almond and plane tree, and he peeled in them white stripes exposing the white that was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods that he had peeled in the channels, in the watering troughs, where the flock came to drink—before the flock—and they conceived when they came to drink.

39 And the flock conceived before the rods, and the flock brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted ones.

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and he set the face of the flock toward the striped, and all the brown in the flock of Laban. And he set for himself flocks by themselves, and he did not set them with the flock of Laban.

41 And it came to pass whenever the strong of the flock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the flock in the channels, that they might conceive in front of the ro ds.

42 And the flock that were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feeble ones were to Laban, and the strong ones to Jacob.

43 And the man burst forth greatly, greatly, and he had to him many flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.