 1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. So she said to Jacob, Give me children or else I will die. 2 Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, Am I in God's stead, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? 3 She said, Behold my slave woman Bilhah. Go in to her, and she shall bear upon my knees, and yes, let me be built up from her, me also. 4 She gave him her slave woman Bilhah to wife. And Jacob went in to her. 5 Bilhah conceived and gave+ Jacob a son. 6 Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she named him Dan. 7 Rachel's slave woman Bilhah conceived again and gave+ Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel said, With the wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister and I have prevailed, and she named him Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had quit bearing, she took her slave woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob to wife. 10 Leah's slave woman Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Leah said, How fortunate+. She named him Gad. 12 Leah's slave woman Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Leah said, I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed. She named him Asher. 14 Reuben went out in the days of the wheat harvest, and found love apples in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's love apples. 15 She said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? And would you also take my son's love apples? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with you tonight for your son's love apples. 16 Jacob came out of the field in the evening. And Leah went to meet him and said, You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's love apples. And he lay with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived and gave+ Jacob the fifth son. 18 Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I gave my slave to my husband. She named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and gave+ Jacob the sixth son. 20 Leah said, God has given me a good present. Now my husband will live with me because I have given+ him six sons. She named him Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and gave birth to a son, and she said, God has taken away my reproach. 24 She named him Joseph. And she said, May the Lord add another son to me. 25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away so that I may go into my own place and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. For you know my service that I have done you. 27 Laban said to him, I ask you, if I have found favor in your eyes stay. For I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake. 28 He said, Appoint your wages and I will give. 29 He said to him, You know how I have served you, and what your cattle has become with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has now increased to a multitude. And the Lord has blessed you since my coming. Now when shall I provide for my own house also? 31 He said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again feed and keep your flock. 32 I will pass through all the flocks today, taking out all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all of the black sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and the speckled among the goats. And these shall be my hire. 33 Shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, and it shall come for my hire before your face. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, shall be counted stolen with me. 34 Laban said, Yes, truly let it be according to your word. 35 That day he took out the he goats that were striped and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black from among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36 He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. 37 Jacob took rods of green poplar, and of a fresh tree, and the almond and plane tree. And he peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear that was in the rods. 38 He set the rods that he had peeled by the troughs, by the water troughs, where the flocks came to drink, across from the flocks, and the flocks were in heat when they came to drink. 39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth striped cattle, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped, and all the black in the flock of Laban. And he put his own flocks by themselves, and did not put them with the flock of Laban. 41 When the stronger flocks conceived, Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flocks in the troughs, so that they might conceive among the rods. 42 But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in. And usually it came to be, the weak ones were Laban's and the stronger ones Jacob's. 43 The man increased exceedingly and had many flocks and maid servants and male servants and camels and donkeys.
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