Genesis 29:31–35:18

Jacob’s Children

³¹When the Lord saw that Leah was ^whated, ^xhe opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. ³²And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben,³ for she said, “Because the Lord ^yhas looked upon my affliction; for now my husband will love me.” ³³She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am hated, he has given me this son also.” And she called his name Simeon.^{4 34}Again she conceived and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will be ^zattached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called Levi.^{5 35}And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name ^aJudah.⁶ Then she ceased bearing.

30When Rachel saw that ^bshe bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” ²Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, ^cwho has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” ³Then she said, “Here is my servant ^dBilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth ^eon my behalf,¹ that even I may have children² through her.” ⁴So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. ⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, “God has ^fjudged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.^{3 7}Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings⁴ I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name ^gNaphtali.⁵

⁹When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and ^hgave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Then Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹And Leah said, ⁱ“Good fortune has come!” so she called his name ⁱGad.^{6 12}Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah said, “Happy am I! For women ^jhave called me happy.” So she called his name Asher.⁷

¹⁴In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found ^kmandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night. ¹⁷And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.⁸

¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name ^lZebulun.^{9 21}Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.

²²Then God ^mremembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ⁿopened her womb. ²³She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away ^omy reproach.” ²⁴And she called his name Joseph,¹⁰ saying, ^p“May the Lord add to me another son!”

Jacob’s Prosperity

²⁵As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children ^qfor whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.” ²⁷But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that¹¹ the Lord has blessed me because of you. ^28rName your wages, and I will give it.” ²⁹Jacob said to him, ^s“You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me. ³⁰For you had little before I came, ^tand it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I ^uprovide for my own household also?” ³¹He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it: ³²let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and ^vthey shall be my wages. ³³So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.” ³⁴Laban said, “Good! Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. ³⁶And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷Then ^wJacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks. ³⁸He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the ^xwatering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, ³⁹the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the sticks, ⁴²but for the feebler of the flock he would not lay them there. So the feebler would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Thus the man ^yincreased greatly and ^zhad large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Flees from Laban

31Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has gained all this wealth.” ²And Jacob saw ^athat Laban did not regard him with favor as before. ³Then the Lord said to Jacob, ^b“Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was ⁵and said to them, ^c“I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father ^dhas been with me. ^6eYou know that I have served your father with all my strength, ⁷yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ^ften times. But God did not permit him to harm me. ⁸If he said, ^g‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped. ⁹Thus God has ^htaken away the livestock of your father and given them to me. ¹⁰In the breeding season of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled. ¹¹Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ ¹²And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for ⁱI have seen all that Laban is doing to you. ¹³I am the God of Bethel, ^jwhere you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now ^karise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ” ¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, “Is there ^lany portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house? ¹⁵Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For ^mhe has sold us, and he has indeed devoured our money. ¹⁶All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

¹⁷So Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels. ¹⁸He drove away all his livestock, all his property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession that he had acquired in ⁿPaddan-aram, to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac. ¹⁹Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father’s ^ohousehold gods. ²⁰And Jacob tricked¹ Laban the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee. ²¹He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the ^pEuphrates,² and ^qset his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

²²When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled, ²³he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴But God came to Laban the Aramean ^rin a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, ^seither good or bad.”

²⁵And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsmen pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶And Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have ^ttricked me and driven away my daughters like captives of the sword? ²⁷Why did you flee secretly ^tand trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre? ²⁸And why did you not permit me ^uto kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? Now you have done foolishly. ²⁹It is ^vin my power to do you harm. But the ^wGod of your³ father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, ^xeither good or bad.’ ³⁰And now you have gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house, but why did you ^ysteal my gods?” ³¹Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force. ^32zAnyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsmen point out what I have that is yours, and take it.” Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³So Laban went into…