IAnd Rachel saw that she had not given birth for Jacob. And Rachel was jealous of her sister, and she said to Jacob, “Give me children. And if not I’m dying!”
2And Jacob’s anger flared at Rachel, and he said, “Am I in place of God, who has held back the fruit of the womb from you?!”
3And she said, “Here’s my maid, Bilhah. Come to her, and she’ll give birth on my knees, and I too will get a child through her.” 4And she gave him Bilhah, her maid, as a wife. And Jacob came to her. 5And Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob. 6And Rachel said, “God has judged me and heard my prayer as well and has given me a son.” On account of this she called his name Dan. 7And Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 8And Rachel said, “I’ve had Godlike struggles with my sister. I’ve also prevailed.” And she called his name Naphtali.
9And Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, and she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a son for Jacob. “And Leah said, “With fortune!” and called his name Gad. 12And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 13And Leah said, “With my happiness! — because daughters will wish me happiness,” and called his name Asher.
14And in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to Leah, his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15And she said to her, “Is your taking my man a small thing? And you’re taking my son’s mandrakes, too?!”
And Rachel said, “Then let him lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
16And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to him and said, “You are to come to me, because I’ve hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night. 17And God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. 18And Leah said, “God has given my hire because I gave my maid to my man,” and she called his name Issachar. 19And Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. 20And Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. This time my man will value me highly, because I’ve given birth to six sons for him,” and she called his name Zebulun. 21And after that she gave birth to a daughter and called her name Dinah.
22And God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb, 23and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. And she said, “God has taken away my humiliation” 24and called his name Joseph, saying, “May YHWH add another son to me.”* 25And it was when Rachel had given birth to Joseph: and Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away so I may go to my place and my land. 26Give me my wives and my children for whom I’ve worked for you and let me go; because you know my work that I’ve done for you.”
27And Laban said to him, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes, I’ve divined that YHWH has blessed me because of you,” 28and he said, “Designate your pay for me, and I’ll give it.”
29And he said to him, “You know how I’ve worked for you and how your cattle have become with me, 30that a little that you had before me expanded into a lot, and YHWH blessed you wherever I set foot. And now, when shall I also take care of my house?”
3IAnd he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You won’t give me anything—if you’ll do this thing for me: Let me go back; I’ll tend and watch over your flock. 32I’ll pass among all your flock today removing from there every speckled and spotted lamb and every brown lamb among the sheep and every spotted and speckled one among the goats—and that will be my pay. 33And my virtue will answer for me in a future day: when you’ll come upon my pay, it will be in front of you. Any one that isn’t speckled and spotted among the goats and brown among the sheep, it’s stolen with me.”
34And Laban said, “Here, let it be according to your word.” 35And in that day he removed the he-goats that were streaked and spotted and the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and every brown one among the sheep, and set them in his sons’ hand 36and put three days’ distance between him and Jacob. And Jacob was tending Laban’s remaining sheep.
37And Jacob took a rod of fresh poplar and one of almond tree and one of plane tree, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was on the rods. 38And he set up the rods that he had peeled in the channels in the watering troughs at which the flock came to drink, facing the flock. And they copulated when they came to drink. 39And the flock mated at the rods, and the flock gave birth to streaked, speckled, and spotted ones. 40And Jacob separated the sheep and had the flock face the streaked and every brown one among Laban’s flock, and he set his own droves apart and did not set them by Laban’s flock. 4IAnd it was that whenever the fittest sheep would copulate Jacob would put the rods in the channels before the sheep’s eyes so that they would copulate by the rods, 42and when the sheep were feebler he would not put them, so the feeble ones became Laban’s and the fitter ones became Jacob’s. 43And the man expanded very, very much, and he had many sheep and female and male servants and camels and asses.