Genesis 30

1Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, envied her sister, and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."

2Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

3She said, "Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Go in to her, and let her bear on my knees, and I too will obtain children by her."

4She gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

5Bilhah conceived and bore a son to Jacob.

6Rachel said, "God has judged me, and also heard my voice, and given me a son." Therefore she called his name Dan.

7Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

8Rachel said, "With God's wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have also prevailed." She called his name Naphtali.

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

10Zilpah, Leah's servant girl, bore Jacob a son.

11Leah said, "Fortune comes, fortune!" and she called his name Gad.

12Zilpah, Leah's bondwoman, bore Jacob a second son.

13Leah said, "I am happy, because the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher.

14During the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field, bringing them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

15She said to her, "Is it too little that you have taken my husband, that you would take also my son's mandrakes?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

16Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, "Come to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." He lay with her that night.

17God heard Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

18Leah said, "God has given me my reward because I gave my maidservant to my husband," and she named him Issachar.

19Leah conceived again and gave birth to Jacob's sixth son.

20Leah said, "God has granted me an excellent gift; now my husband will reside with me, because I have borne six sons to him." She called his name Zebulun.

21Afterward she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22God remembered Rachel, and God heard her, and opened her womb.

23She conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, "God has removed my reproach."

24She called his name Joseph, saying, "May Yahweh add another son to me."

25After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my land."

26Give me my wives and my children, for whom I served you, and let me go; for you know my service by which I served you.

27Laban said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, stay, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me because of you."

28He said, "Name your wages with me, and I will give it."

29He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock has been with me."

30For you had little before I came, and it burst forth into abundance, and Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when shall I provide for my own house also?

31He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you do this thing for me, I will return to pasturing your flock and guarding it."

32Let me pass through all your flock today; remove from there every speckled and spotted sheep, every brown sheep among the lambs, and every spotted and speckled goat, and that will be my wages.

33My righteousness will testify for me tomorrow, when you come regarding my wages before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, will be considered stolen if it is with me.

34Laban said, "Behold, may it be according to your word."

35That day he removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted she-goats—every one that had white in it—along with all the brown ones among the sheep, and put them into the hands of his sons.

36He set a three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flocks.

37Jacob took fresh poplar rods, hazel, and chestnut for himself, and peeled white streaks in them, laying bare the white that was on the rods.

38He placed the rods he had peeled in the gutters of the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, opposite the flocks, and they conceived when they came to drink.

39The flocks came into heat before the rods, and they gave birth to ring-straked, speckled, and spotted lambs.

40Jacob separated the lambs and turned the flocks toward the streaked and every brown one in Laban's flock, setting his own droves apart and not putting them with Laban's flock.

41Whenever the stronger ones of the flock came into heat, Jacob placed the rods before their eyes in the troughs, so they would conceive among the rods.

42But when the flock was weak, he did not put them there; so the weak ones were Laban's, and the strong ones Jacob's.

43The man prospered abundantly and possessed vast flocks, maidservants, menservants, camels, and donkeys.