Bilhah Bears Dan and Naphtali
1 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”
2 Jacob was angry with Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld children from your womb?”
3 She said, “My maid Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, and I also may build a family through her.”
4 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 named him Dan.
7 Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel said, “In a great struggle, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.
Zilpah Bears Gad and Asher
9 When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son. 11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad. 12 Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son. 13 Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy.” She named him Asher.
14 During wheat harvest, Reuben went out 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 Leah said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes as well?”
Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie 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.”
He lay with her that night.
Leah Bears Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah
17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has rewarded me, because I gave my servant to my husband.” She named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. 20 Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good reward. Now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” She named him Zebulun. 21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
Rachel Bears Joseph
22 Then God remembered Rachel and listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 She named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add another son to me.”
Jacob Strategizes and Prospers
25 When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you and let me go, for you know the service which I have provided to 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 because of you.” 28 He said, “Tell me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me. 30 For you had little before I came, and it has increased into a multitude. The Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I begin providing for my own house also?”
31 Laban said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will continue feeding and keeping your flock. 32 I will go through all of your flock today, removing from them every speckled and spotted one and every black one among the sheep and the spotted and speckled among the goats. These will be my wages. 33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when this shall come up before you, concerning my wages: every one of them that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.”
34 Laban said, “Let it be according to your word.”
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 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 fresh poplar, almond, and plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38 He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. 39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted offspring.
40 Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked ones and all the black ones in Laban’s flock. He put his own flocks apart and did not put them into Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the watering troughs, that they might conceive among the rods, 42 but when the flock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler ones were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43 Jacob increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.