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Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die!”
2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah; go in to her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.”
4 So Rachel gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5 Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard me and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
7 Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Then Rachel said, “With my many struggles I have wrestled with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
12 Leah’s maidservant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Then Leah said, “How happy I am! Now the women will call me happy;” so she named him Asher.
14 During the wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrakes. When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 But Leah said to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken away my husband? Will you also take away my son’s mandrakes?”
“Very well, Rachel replied, then he can lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 So when Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me tonight, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me because I gave my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
19 Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God has given me a precious gift. Now my husband will honour me because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
21 Some time later, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my shame.” 24 She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go. You know very well how much work I have done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favour in your sight, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know all that I have done for you, and how your livestock have faired under my care. 30 For the little you had before I came has now increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when will I also be able to do something for my own household?”
31 “What should I give you then?” Laban asked.
“You don’t need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will continue tending your flocks and watching over them. 32 Let me go through all your flocks today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-coloured lamb and every spotted and speckled goat, and they will be my wages. 33 So my honesty will testify for me later, whenever you come to check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat that is not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-coloured, if found with me, will be considered stolen.”
34 “Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 But that same day Laban removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all speckled or spotted female goats, every one that had any white on it, and all the dark-coloured lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a three day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob, however, took freshly cut branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled strips of bark off them, exposing the white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he set the peeled branches in all of the watering troughs, so they were in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the sheep were in heat, they mated when they came to drink, 39 and those that bred in front of the branches produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob set the lambs apart by themselves, but made the rest of the flocks face the streaked and dark-coloured animals that belonged to Laban. Then he set his own flocks apart by themselves and did not put them back with Laban’s livestock. 41 Whenever the stronger females were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in full view of the flocks, and they would breed near the branches. 42 But if the animals were weaker, he didn’t put out the branches. So the weaker animals belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. 43 In this way the man grew very rich, and he came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.