The Holy Bible · Genesis

Genesis 30

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1Now Rachel, seeing that she bore no children to Jacob, envied her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I shall die.”

2And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has deprived you of the fruit of the womb?”

3Rachel said to Jacob, “Here is my slave woman Bilhah. Go in to her so she may bear on my knees, and I too may have children through her.”

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

5Bilhah, Rachel’s slave woman, conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan.

7And Rachel’s slave woman Bilhah conceived again and bore a second son to Jacob.

8Rachel said, “God has helped me; I have contended with my sister and prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.

9Now when Leah saw that she had ceased bearing, she took her slave woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob to be his wife.

10Jacob went in to her, and Zilpah, Leah’s slave woman, conceived and bore Jacob a son.

11Leah said, “Good fortune!” She named him Gad.

12Zilpah, Leah’s slave woman, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

13Leah said, “Blessed am I! Women will call me blessed.” She named him Asher.

14Now Reuben went out in the days of the wheat harvest and found mandrake apples in the field, and he brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15But Leah said to her, “Is it not enough for you that you have taken my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Not so; let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

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

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

18Then Leah said, “God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave woman to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar, which means Reward.

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

20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; in the present time my husband will choose me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.

21Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel, and God heard her and opened her womb.

23And she conceived and bore a son to Jacob, and she said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

24So she called his name Joseph, saying, “May God add to me another son.”

25And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that 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 depart; for you know the service which I have rendered you.”

27Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight— I would divine by signs, for God has blessed me at your arrival.”

28He said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

29But Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.”

30“For it was little that you had before I came, and it has increased to an abundance; and the Lord blessed you at my entering. Now therefore, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

31And Laban said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall give me nothing at all. If you will do this thing for me, I will again tend and guard your flock:”

32“Let all your sheep pass through today, and separate from them every gray animal among the lambs and every white-marked and spotted animal among the goats. These shall be my wages.”

33“My righteousness will answer for me tomorrow, for my wages are before you. Every goat with me that is not spotted or white-marked, and every lamb that is not gray, shall be counted stolen.”

34And Laban said, “Let it be according to your word.”

35That day he separated the spotted and white-marked male goats, all the spotted and white-marked female goats, everything with white on it, and every gray animal among the lambs, and handed them over to his sons.

36He put a three-day journey between them and Jacob, and Jacob tended Laban’s remaining sheep.

37Jacob took fresh rods of styrax, walnut, and plane tree. He peeled white strips in them, stripping away the green, so the exposed white made a variegated pattern on the rods.

38He set the rods he had peeled in the channels of the watering troughs, so that, when the sheep came to drink before the rods—when they came to drink—

39the sheep might conceive facing the rods. The sheep bore young that were white-marked, variegated, and ash-gray with spots.

40Jacob separated the lambs and set before the sheep a white-marked ram and every variegated animal among the lambs. He kept his own flocks apart and did not mix them with Laban’s sheep.

41When the sheep were mating and conceiving, Jacob placed the rods before them in the troughs, so they would mate facing the rods.

42When the sheep gave birth, he did not put the rods there. The unmarked animals belonged to Laban, and the marked ones to Jacob.

43The man became very, very wealthy and had much livestock, oxen, male and female slaves, camels and donkeys.

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Read this chapter with the Hebrew and Greek compared →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.