Genesis 29:31–35:18

The Children of Jacob

³¹When the Lord ^zsaw that Leah was ⁴unloved, He ^aopened her womb; but Rachel was barren. ³²So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name ⁵Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely ^blooked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” ³³Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am ⁶unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name ⁷Simeon. ³⁴She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called ⁸Levi. ³⁵And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name ^cJudah. ⁹Then she stopped bearing.

30Now when Rachel saw that ^ashe bore Jacob no children, Rachel ^benvied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, ^cor else I die!”

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

³So she said, “Here is ^emy maid Bilhah; go in to her, ^fand she will bear a child on my knees, ^gthat I also may ¹have children by her.” ⁴Then she gave him Bilhah her maid ^has wife, and Jacob went in to her. ⁵And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Then Rachel said, “God has ⁱjudged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name ²Dan. ⁷And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Then Rachel said, “With ³great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name ⁴Naphtali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and ^jgave her to Jacob as wife. ¹⁰And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Then Leah said, ⁵“A troop comes!” So she called his name ⁶Gad. ¹²And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters ^kwill call me blessed.” So she called his name ⁷Asher.

¹⁴Now 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, ^l“Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵But she said to her, ^m“Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”

And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, 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.” And 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 have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name ⁸Issachar. ¹⁹Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name ⁹Zebulun. ²¹Afterward she bore a ⁿdaughter, and called her name ¹Dinah.

²²Then God ^oremembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ^popened her womb. ²³And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away ^qmy reproach.” ²⁴So she called his name ²Joseph, and said, ^r“The Lord shall add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

²⁵And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ^s“Send me away, that I may go to ^tmy own place and to my country. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children ^ufor whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for ^vI have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸Then he said, ^w“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹So Jacob said to him, ^x“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. ³⁰For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you ³since my coming. And now, when shall I also ^yprovide for my own house?”

³¹So 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 flocks: ³²Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and ^zthese shall be my wages. ³³So my ^arighteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” ³⁵So he removed that day the male goats that were ^bspeckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. ³⁶Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Now ^cJacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. ³⁸And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. ³⁹So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. ⁴²But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Thus the man ^dbecame exceedingly prosperous, and ^ehad large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Flees from Laban

31Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and from what was our father’s he has acquired all this ^awealth.” ²And Jacob saw the ^bcountenance of Laban, and indeed it was not ^cfavorable toward him as before. ³Then the Lord said to Jacob, ^d“Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will ^ebe with you.”

⁴So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock, ⁵and said to them, ^f“I see your father’s ¹countenance, that it is not favorable toward me as before; but the God of my father ^ghas been with me. ⁶And ^hyou know that with all my might I have served your father. ⁷Yet your father has deceived me and ⁱchanged my wages ^jten times, but God ^kdid not allow him to hurt me. ⁸If he said thus: ^l‘The speckled shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore speckled. And if he said thus: ‘The streaked shall be your wages,’ then all the flocks bore streaked. ⁹So God has ^mtaken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰“And it happened, at the time when the flocks conceived, that I lifted my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams which leaped upon the flocks were streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted. ¹¹Then ⁿthe Angel of God spoke to me in a dream, saying, ‘Jacob.’ And I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹²And He said, ‘Lift your eyes now and see, all the rams which leap on the flocks are streaked, speckled, and gray-spotted; for ^oI have seen all that Laban is doing to you. ¹³I am the God of Bethel, ^pwhere you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now ^qarise, get out of this land, and return to the land of your family.’ ”

¹⁴Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, ^r“Is there still any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? ¹⁵Are we not considered strangers by him? For ^she has sold us, and also completely consumed our money. ¹⁶For all these riches which God has taken from our father are really ours and our children’s; now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.”

¹⁷Then Jacob rose and set his sons and his wives on camels. ¹⁸And he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Padan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of ^tCanaan. ¹⁹Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the ^uhousehold ²idols that were her father’s. ²⁰And Jacob stole away, unknown to Laban the Syrian, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee. ²¹So he fled with all that he had. He arose and crossed the river, and ^vheaded ³toward the mountains of Gilead.

Laban Pursues Jacob

²²And Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. ²³Then he took ^whis brethren with him and pursued him for seven days’ journey, and he overtook him in the mountains of Gilead. ²⁴But God ^xhad come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you ^yspeak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”

²⁵So Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains, and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mountains of Gilead.

²⁶And Laban said to Jacob: “What have you done, that you have stolen away unknown to me, and ^zcarried away my daughters like captives taken with the sword? ²⁷Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp? ²⁸And you did not allow me ^ato kiss my sons and my daughters. Now ^byou have done foolishly in so doing. ²⁹It is in my power to do you harm, but the ^cGod of your father spoke to me ^dlast night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’ ³⁰And now you have surely gone because you greatly…