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 ³³She 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 ³⁴Once 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 ³⁵Then 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 ⁷Bilhah 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 ¹²Zilpah 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 ¹⁹Leah 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 ²¹Later 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

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Footnotes

qreuben: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “see, a son” and “has seen my trouble”.
rsimeon: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “hear”.
slevi: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “bound”.
tjudah: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “praise”.
udan: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “judge in favour”.
vnaphtali: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “fight”.
wgad: This name in Hebrew means “luck”.
xasher: This name in Hebrew means “happy”.
ymandrakes: Plants which were believed to produce fertility and were used as love-charms.
zissachar: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “a man is hired” and “there is reward”.
azebulun: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “accept” and “gift”.
bjoseph: This name sounds like the Hebrew for “may he give another” and “he has taken away”.