Rachel’s Desperation and the Children of Bilhah

1. And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children,
Rachel envied her sister;
and she said to Jacob,
“Give me children, or else I die!”

2. And Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said,
“Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

3. And she said,
“Behold my maid Bilhah; go in to her,
and she shall bear upon my knees,
that I also may have children by her.”

4. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid for a wife;
and Jacob went in to her.

5. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6. And Rachel said,
“God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.”
Therefore she called his name Dan (“judge”).

7. And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again,
and bore Jacob a second son.

8. And Rachel said,
“With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.”
And she called his name Naphtali (“my wrestling”).

Leah’s Response and the Children of Zilpah

9. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing,
she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10. And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a son.

11. And Leah said,
“Good fortune has come!”
And she called his name Gad (“fortune”).

12. And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a second son.

13. And Leah said,
“Happy am I! For the daughters will call me blessed.”
And she called his name Asher (“happy”).

Reuben’s Mandrakes and More Sons

14. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest,
and found mandrakes in the field,
and brought them to his mother Leah.
Then Rachel said to Leah,
“Give me, I pray you, some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15. And she said to her,
“Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband?
Would you take also my son’s mandrakes?”
And Rachel said,
“Therefore he shall lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

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

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

18. And Leah said,
“God has given me my hire, because I gave my maid to my husband.”
And she called his name Issachar (“hire”).

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

20. And Leah said,
“God has endowed me with a good dowry;
now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.”
And she called his name Zebulun (“dwelling”).

21. And afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah (“judgement”).

The Birth of Joseph

22. And God remembered Rachel,
and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

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

24. And she called his name Joseph (“may He add”),
and said,
“May Jehovah add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

25. And 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 country.

26. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you,
and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have done for you.”

27. And Laban said to him,
“If I have found favor in your eyes, stay;
for I have learned by divination that Jehovah has blessed me because of you.”

28. And he said, “Name your wages, and I will give it.”

29. And he said to him,
“You know how I have served you,
and how your livestock has fared with me.

30. For it was little which you had before I came,
and it has increased abundantly;
and Jehovah has blessed you wherever I turned.
But now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

31. And he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said,
“You shall not give me anything.
If you will do this thing for me,
I will again feed and keep your flock:

32. I will pass through all your flock today,
removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep,
and every dark-colored one among the lambs,
and the spotted and speckled among the goats —
and such shall be my wages.

33. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come,
when you come to look upon my wages before you:
every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats,
and dark among the lambs,
that one shall be counted stolen by me.”

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

35. And 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 some white in it, and all the dark among the lambs,
and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36. And he set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob;
and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Jacob’s Clever Breeding

37. And Jacob took rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and plane tree,
and peeled white stripes in them,
and made the white appear which was in the rods.

38. And 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,
so that they would conceive when they came to drink.

39. And the flocks conceived before the rods,
and brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

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

41. And it came to pass, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived,
that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs,
that they might conceive among the rods.

42. But when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in;
so the feebler ones were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

43. And the man increased exceedingly,
and had large flocks,
and male and female servants,
and camels and donkeys.