Chapter 30

Chapter 30

1 When Rachel saw that she was not giving birth to children for Jacob, Rachel became jealous of her sister, and she said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or else I am dead.'

2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, 'Am I in the place of The All-Powerful One, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?'

3 She said, 'Look, here is my maidservant Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may bear children on my knees, and I too may build a family through her.'

4 So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah to be his woman, and Jacob went in to her.

5 Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son for Jacob.

6 Rachel said, 'The All-Powerful One has vindicated me; He has also heard my voice and given me a son,' therefore she named him Dan (Vindicated).

7 Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah conceived again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

8 Rachel said, 'I have engaged in a mighty struggle with my sister, and I have prevailed,' so she named him Naphtali (My Struggle).

9 When Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob to be his woman.

10 Leah’s maidservant Zilpah gave birth to a son for Jacob.

11 Leah said, 'How fortunate!' so she named him Gad (Fortunate).

12 Leah’s maidservant Zilpah gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

13 Leah said, 'How happy I am! For women will call me happy,' so she named him Asher (Happy).

14 During 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.'

15 But she replied, 'Is it a small thing that you have taken my man? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?' Rachel said, 'Therefore he shall lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.'

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

17 The All-Powerful One heard Leah, and she conceived and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.

18 Leah said, 'The All-Powerful One has given me my wage, because I gave my maidservant to my man,' so she named him Issachar (Wage).

19 Leah conceived again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.

20 Leah said, 'The All-Powerful One has endowed me with a good dowry; now my man will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons,' so she named him Zebulun (Dwelling).

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

22 Then The All-Powerful One remembered Rachel, and The All-Powerful One heard her and opened her womb.

23 She conceived and gave birth to a son and said, 'The All-Powerful One has taken away my disgrace.'

24 She named him Joseph (May He add), saying, 'May The Self-Existent add to me another son.'

25 After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, 'Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.

26 Give me my women and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know the service that I have rendered you.'

27 Laban said to him, 'If I have found favor in your eyes, stay; I have learned by divination that The Self-Existent has blessed me for your sake.'

28 He added, 'Name me your wages, and I will give it.'

29 Jacob replied, 'You know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared with me.

30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased to a multitude; The Self-Existent has blessed you wherever I turned. Now, when shall I also provide for my own house?'

31 Laban asked, 'What shall I give you?' Jacob said, 'You shall not give me anything; if you do this for me, I will again feed and keep your flock:

32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted lamb and every black lamb among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

33 So my honesty will answer for me in the time to come, when you come to check on my wages; everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, if found with me, shall be considered stolen.'

34 Laban said, 'Good! Let it be according to your word.'

35 So he removed that day the he-goats that were streaked and spotted and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36 He set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to feed the rest of Laban’s flock.

37 Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.

38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink.

39 So the flocks mated in front of the rods and brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and he set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the gutters before the eyes of the flock, that they might mate among the rods;

42 but when the flock were feeble, he would not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

43 Thus the man became exceedingly wealthy and had many flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.