Genesis 30:5–24

⁵Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son. ⁶Rachel named him Dan, for she said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son.” ⁷Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. ⁸Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I’m winning!”

⁹Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she took her servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Soon Zilpah presented him with a son. ¹¹Leah named him Gad, for she said, “How fortunate I am!” ¹²Then Zilpah gave Jacob a second son. ¹³And Leah named him Asher, for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other women will celebrate with me.”

¹⁴One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son’s mandrakes, too?”

Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob sleep with you tonight if you give me some of the mandrakes.”

¹⁶So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with some mandrakes that my son found.” So that night he slept with Leah. ¹⁷And God answered Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸She named him Issachar, for she said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.” ¹⁹Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. ²⁰She named him Zebulun, for she said, “God has given me a good reward. Now my husband will treat me with respect, for I have given him six sons.” ²¹Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children. ²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “God has removed my disgrace,” she said. ²⁴And she named him Joseph, for she said, “May the Lord add yet another son to my family.”