Genesis 30

1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

2 Then Jacob became very angry with Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

3 She said, "Look, my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her, so that she will bear children for me, that I too may have children through her."

4 So she gave him Bilhah her servant as a wife, and Jacob slept with her.

5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

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

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

8 Rachel said, "I have wrestled mightily with my sister, and have prevailed." So she named him Naphtali.

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

10 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

11 Leah said, "How fortunate." So she named him Gad.

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

13 Leah said, "Happy am I, for the women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.

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

15 She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he may sleep with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

16 Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must sleep with me; for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he slept with her that night.

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

18 Leah said, "God has given me my wages, because I gave my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.

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

20 Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and made her fertile.

23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my shame."

24 So she named him Joseph, saying, "May God add another son to me."

25 It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to 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 the service I have given you."

27 Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have learned by divination that God has blessed me for your sake."

28 He said, "Name your wages, and I will pay it."

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

30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly. And God has blessed you wherever I worked. Now when will I also provide for my own household?"

31 He said, "What should I give you?" Jacob said, "You do not need to give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture your flock and take care of it.

32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my wages.

33 So my honesty will testify for me later on, when the subject of my wages comes before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep that I have in my possession, will be counted as stolen."

34 Laban said, "Look, let it be as you have said."

35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.

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

37 Jacob took fresh branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white streaks by peeling them, exposing white stripes on the branches.

38 He set up the peeled branches which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

39 the flocks bred in front of the branches, and the flocks brought bore streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban. So he kept his own flocks separate, and did not put them into Laban's flock.

41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, that Jacob would set up the branches in front of the flock in the troughs, so that they would breed near the branches;

42 but for the weaker of the flock, he did not put them there. So the weaker would be Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

43 Thus the man became very rich, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.