The Rivalry of Rachel and Leah
1When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she 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? He is the one who has kept you from bearing children.” 3She said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, so that she may bear children on my knees, and through her I too may build a family.” 4So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob slept with her. 5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has judged in my favor. He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” So she named him Dan. 7Bilhah, Rachel’s maidservant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Rachel said, “I have wrestled mighty struggles with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali. 9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, bore Jacob a son. 11Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” So she named him Gad. 12Zilpah, Leah’s maidservant, bore Jacob a second son. 13Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
The Mandrakes
14During the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15But she said to her, “Was it not enough to take my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16When Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You are to sleep with me — I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. 17God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Leah said, “God has given me a fine gift. Now at last my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
The Birth of Joseph
22Then God remembered Rachel; God listened to her and opened her womb. 23She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24So she named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add to me another son.”
Jacob’s Wages and Wealth
25After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way, so that I may go back to my own home and my own country. 26Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. You know very well how hard I have worked for you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you.” 28He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” 29Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you, and how your livestock has fared under my care. 30The little you had before I came has grown into a great deal, and Yahweh has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household as well?” 31“What shall I give you?” he asked. Jacob said, “Give me nothing at all. But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flock and watching over it. 32Let me go through all your flock today and remove from it every speckled and spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you come to check on my wages. Any animal among my goats that is not speckled or spotted, or among my lambs that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen if found with me.” 34Laban said, “Agreed. Let it be as you say.” 35That same day Laban removed the male goats that were striped or spotted, all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one that had any white on it, and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36Then he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flock. 37Jacob then took fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes on them, exposing the white wood inside the branches. 38He set the peeled branches in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink, right in front of the flocks, so that they would mate when they came to drink. 39The flocks mated in front of the branches, and they bore young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob separated out these lambs, and made the rest of the flock face the striped and dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. He kept his own herds apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41Whenever the stronger animals of the flock were mating, Jacob would set the branches in the troughs in full view of the animals, so that they would mate near the branches, 42but when the animals were weak, he would not set them out. So the weaker animals went to Laban, and the stronger ones to Jacob. 43In this way the man grew exceedingly rich, and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
