Genesis 30–31

Chapter 30

The Sons of Jacob

¹Now when Rachel saw that ^ashe bore Jacob no children, ¹she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “^bGive me children, or else I die.”

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

³She said, “^aHere is my maid Bilhah, go in to her that she may ^bbear on my knees, that ¹through her I too may have children.”

⁴So ^ashe gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Then Rachel said, “God has ^1avindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him ²Dan.

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

⁸So Rachel said, “With ¹mighty wrestlings I have ²wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

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

¹⁰Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

¹¹Then Leah said, “¹How fortunate!” So she named him ²Gad.

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

¹³Then Leah said, “¹Happy am I! For women ^awill call me happy.” So she named him ²Asher.

¹⁴Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found ^amandrakes 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 for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

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

¹⁷God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Then Leah said, “God has given me my ¹wages because I gave my maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

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

²⁰Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband ¹will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

²¹Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

²²Then ^aGod remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and ^bopened her womb.

²³So she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has ^ataken away my reproach.”

²⁴She named him Joseph, saying, “^aMay the Lord ¹give me another son.”

Jacob Prospers

²⁵Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “^aSend me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

²⁶“Give me my wives and my children ^afor whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have ¹rendered you.”

²⁷But Laban said to him, “If now ¹it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined ^athat the Lord has blessed me on your account.”

²⁸He ¹continued, “^aName me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹But he said to him, “^aYou yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have ¹fared with me.

³⁰“For you had little before ¹I came and it has ²increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you ³wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?”

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

³²let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every ^aspeckled and spotted sheep and every black ¹one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

³³“So my ¹honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my ²wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.”

³⁴Laban said, “¹Good, let it be according to your word.”

³⁵So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the ¹care of his sons.

³⁶And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Then Jacob ¹took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was ²in the rods.

³⁸He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they ¹mated when they came to drink.

³⁹So the flocks ¹mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and ¹made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹Moreover, whenever the ¹stronger of the flock ²were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might ³mate by the rods;

⁴²but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the ¹stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³So ^athe man ¹became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.

Chapter 31

Jacob Leaves Secretly for Canaan

¹Now ¹Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this ²wealth.”

²Jacob saw the ¹attitude of Laban, and behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly.

³Then the Lord said to Jacob, “^aReturn to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and ^bI will be with you.”

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

⁵and said to them, “^aI see your father’s ¹attitude, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but ^bthe God of my father has been with me.

⁶“^aYou know that I have served your father with all my strength.

⁷“Yet your father has ^acheated me and ^bchanged my wages ten times; however, ^cGod did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸“If ^ahe spoke thus, ‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth speckled; and if he spoke thus, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock brought forth striped.

⁹“Thus God has ^ataken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

¹⁰“And it came about at the time when the flock were ¹mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were ²mating were striped, speckled, and mottled.

¹¹“Then ^athe angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’

¹²“He said, ‘Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are ¹mating are striped, speckled, and mottled; for ^aI have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

¹³‘I am ^athe God of Bethel, where you ^banointed a pillar, where you made a vow to Me; now arise, ¹leave this land, and ^creturn to the land of your birth.’ ”

¹⁴Rachel and Leah said to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?

¹⁵“Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners? For ^ahe has sold us, and has also ¹entirely consumed ²our purchase price.

¹⁶“Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children; now then, do whatever God has said to you.”

¹⁷Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels;

¹⁸and he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had gathered, his acquired livestock which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, ^ato go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.

¹⁹When Laban had gone to shear his flock, then Rachel stole the ^1ahousehold idols that were her father’s.

²⁰And Jacob ¹deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing.

²¹So he fled with all that he had; and he arose and crossed the Euphrates River, and set his face toward the hill country of ^aGilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²²When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled,

²³then he took his ¹kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

^24aGod came to Laban the Aramean in a ^bdream of the night and said to him, “^1cBe careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

²⁵Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his ¹kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead.

²⁶Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done ¹by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?

²⁷“Why did you flee secretly and ¹deceive me, and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with ^atimbrel and with ^blyre;

²⁸and did not allow me ^ato kiss my sons and my daughters? Now you have done foolishly.

²⁹“It is in ¹my power to do you harm, but ^athe God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘^2bBe careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’

³⁰“Now you have indeed gone away because you longed greatly for your father’s house; but why did you steal ^amy gods?”

³¹Then Jacob replied to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

³²“^aThe one with whom you find your gods shall not live; in the presence of our ¹kinsmen ²point out what is yours ³among my belongings and take it for yourself.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

³³So Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the tent of the two maids, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

³⁴Now Rachel had taken the ¹household idols and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat on them. And Laban felt through all the tent but did not find them.

³⁵She said to her father, “Let not my lord be angry that I cannot ^arise before you, for the manner of women is upon me.” So he searched but did not find the ^1bhousehold idols.

³⁶Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob said to Laban, “What is my transgression? What is…