Genesis 29–35

Jacob Arrives at Laban’s Home

29Jacob continued on his way and went towards the land of the East. ²Suddenly he came upon a well out in the fields with three flocks of sheep lying round it. The flocks were watered from this well, which had a large stone over the opening. ³Whenever all the flocks came together there, the shepherds would roll the stone back and water them. Then they would put the stone back in place.

⁴Jacob asked the shepherds, “My friends, where are you from?”

“From Haran,” they answered.

⁵He asked, “Do you know Laban, grandson of Nahor?”

“Yes, we do,” they answered.

⁶“Is he well?” he asked.

“He is well,” they answered. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with his flock.”

⁷Jacob said, “Since it is still broad daylight and not yet time to bring the flocks in, why don’t you water them and take them back to pasture?”

⁸They answered, “We can’t do that until all the flocks are here and the stone has been rolled back; then we will water the flocks.”

⁹While Jacob was still talking to them, Rachel arrived with the flock. ¹⁰When Jacob saw Rachel with his uncle Laban’s flock, he went to the well, rolled the stone back, and watered the sheep. ¹¹Then he kissed her and began to cry for joy. ¹²He told her, “I am your father’s relative, the son of Rebecca.”

She ran to tell her father; ¹³and when he heard the news about his nephew Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him and kissed him, and brought him into the house. When Jacob told Laban everything that had happened, ¹⁴Laban said, “Yes, indeed, you are my own flesh and blood.” Jacob stayed there a whole month.

Jacob Serves Laban for Rachel and Leah

¹⁵Laban said to Jacob, “You shouldn’t work for me for nothing just because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?” ¹⁶Laban had two daughters; the elder was named Leah, and the younger Rachel. ¹⁷Leah had lovely^p eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

¹⁸Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said, “I will work seven years for you, if you will let me marry Rachel.”

¹⁹Laban answered, “I would rather give her to you than to anyone else; stay here with me.” ²⁰Jacob worked seven years so that he could have Rachel, and the time seemed like only a few days to him, because he loved her.

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, “The time is up; let me marry your daughter.” ²²So Laban gave a wedding feast and invited everyone. ²³But that night, instead of Rachel, he took Leah to Jacob, and Jacob had intercourse with her. ²⁴(Laban gave his slave woman Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.) ²⁵Not until the next morning did Jacob discover that it was Leah. He went to Laban and said, “Why did you do this to me? I worked to get Rachel. Why have you tricked me?”

²⁶Laban answered, “It is not the custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the elder. ²⁷Wait until the week’s marriage celebrations are over, and I will give you Rachel, if you will work for me another seven years.”

²⁸Jacob agreed, and when the week of marriage celebrations was over, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹(Laban gave his slave woman Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.) ³⁰Jacob had intercourse with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. Then he worked for Laban another seven years.

The Children Born to Jacob

³¹When the Lord saw that Leah was loved less than Rachel, he made it possible for her to have children, but Rachel remained childless. ³²Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, “The Lord has seen my trouble, and now my husband will love me”; so she named him Reuben.^{q 33}She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “The Lord has given me this son also, because he heard that I was not loved”; so she named him Simeon.^{r 34}Once again she became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She said, “Now my husband will be bound more tightly to me, because I have borne him three sons”; so she named him Levi.^{s 35}Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord”; so she named him Judah.^t Then she stopped having children.

30But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die.”

²Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “I can’t take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children.”

³She said, “Here is my slave Bilhah; sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. In this way I can become a mother through her.” ⁴So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her. ⁵Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Rachel said, “God has judged in my favour. He has heard my prayer and has given me a son”; so she named him Dan.^{u 7}Bilhah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Rachel said, “I have fought a hard fight with my sister, but I have won”; so she named him Naphtali.^v

⁹When Leah realized that she had stopped having children, she gave her slave Zilpah to Jacob as his wife. ¹⁰Then Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Leah said, “I have been lucky”; so she named him Gad.^{w 12}Zilpah bore Jacob another son, ¹³and Leah said, “How happy I am! Now women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.^x

¹⁴During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the fields and found mandrakes,^y which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵Leah answered, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you are even trying to take away my son’s mandrakes.”

Rachel said, “If you will give me your son’s mandrakes, you can sleep with Jacob tonight.”

¹⁶When Jacob came in from the fields in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You are going to sleep with me tonight, because I have paid for you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he had intercourse with her that night.

¹⁷God answered Leah’s prayer, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband”; so she named her son Issachar.^{z 19}Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰She said, “God has given me a fine gift. Now my husband will accept me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.^{a 21}Later she bore a daughter, whom she named Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel; he answered her prayer and made it possible for her to have children. ²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, “God has taken away my disgrace by giving me a son. ²⁴May the Lord give me another son”; so she named him Joseph.^b

Jabob’s Bargain with Laban

²⁵After the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Let me go, so that I can return home. ²⁶Give me my wives and children that I have earned by working for you, and I will leave. You know how well I have served you.”

²⁷Laban said to him, “Let me say this: I have learnt by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. ²⁸Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

²⁹Jacob answered, “You know how I have worked for you and how your flocks have prospered under my care. ³⁰The little you had before I came has grown enormously, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I went.^c Now it is time for me to look out for my own interests.”

³¹“What shall I pay you?” Laban asked.

Jacob answered, “I don’t want any wages. I will continue to take care of your flocks if you agree to this suggestion: ³²Let me go through all your flocks today and take every black lamb^d and every spotted or speckled young goat. That is all the wages I want. ³³In the future you can easily find out if I have been honest. When you come to check up on my wages, if I have any goat that isn’t speckled or spotted or any sheep that isn’t black, you will know that it has been stolen.”

³⁴Laban answered, “Agreed. We will do as you suggest.” ³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that had stripes or spots and all the females that were speckled and spotted or which had white on them; he also removed all the black sheep. He put his sons in charge of them, ³⁶and then went away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Jacob got green branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them. ³⁸He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink. ³⁹So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban’s flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban’s.

⁴¹When the healthy animals were mating, Jacob put the branches in front of them at the drinking troughs, so that they would breed among the branches. ⁴²But he did not put the branches in front of the weak animals. Soon Laban had all the weak animals, and Jacob all the healthy ones. ⁴³In this way Jacob became very wealthy. He had many flocks, slaves, camels, and donkeys.

Jacob Flees from Laban

31Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father. All his wealth has come from what our father owned.” ²He also saw that Laban was no longer as friendly as he had been earlier. ³Then the Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives. I will be with you.”

⁴So Jacob sent word to Rachel and Leah to meet him in the field where his flocks were. ⁵He said to them, “I have noticed that your father is not as friendly towards me as he used to be; but my father’s God has been with me. ⁶You both know that I have worked for your father with all my strength. ⁷Yet he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not let him harm me. ⁸Whenever Laban said, ‘The speckled goats shall be your wages,’ all the flocks produced speckled young. When he said, ‘The…