Rachel and Leah
Two sisters compete through their servants, through mandrakes and childbirth, naming each son after the fight they are having and what our Father heard. Then Jacob, wanting to go home, out-maneuvers Laban over striped and speckled flocks and grows rich on the stronger animals.
30 1When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die!"
2Jacob was furious with Rachel. He said, "Am I in our Father's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
3She said, "Here is my servant Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear children for me, and through her I too may build a family." a a v3 To bear a child 'on one's knees' was an ancient adoption gesture — the child placed on the adoptive mother's knees was legally claimed as her own. 4So she gave him Bilhah her servant as a wife, and Jacob was intimate with her. 5Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, "Our Father has judged me; he has also heard my voice and given me a son." Therefore she named him Dan. b b v6 The name Dan means "he has judged." 7Bilhah, Rachel's servant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Rachel said, "I have wrestled fiercely with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali. c c v8 The name Naphtali means "my struggle."
9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took Zilpah her servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10Then Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Leah said, "Good fortune!" So she named him Gad. d d v11 The name Gad means "good fortune." 12Leah's servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Leah said, "How happy I am! For women will call me happy." So she named him Asher. e e v13 The name Asher means "happy" or "blessed."
14In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." f f v14 Mandrakes were a plant widely believed in the ancient world to aid conception — hence Rachel's eagerness for them.
15But Leah replied, "Wasn't it enough to take my husband? Now you'd take my son's mandrakes too?" Rachel said, "Fine—he can sleep with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."
16When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must sleep with me, for I have indeed hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he was intimate with her that night.
17And our Father listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, "Our Father has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar. g g v18 The name Issachar means "wages" or "reward." 19Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20Then Leah said, "Our Father has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun. h h v20 The name Zebulun means "honor." 21Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
22Then our Father remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb. 23She conceived and bore a son, and said, "Our Father has taken away my disgrace." 24She named him Joseph, saying, "May our Father add to me another son." i i v24 The name Joseph means "may he add."
Send Me Home
25As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Let me go back to my own home and country. 26Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go. You know the service I have given you."
27But Laban said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes—I have learned by divination that God has blessed me because of you." 28He said, "Name your wages, and I will give it."
29Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you, and how well your livestock has done under my care. 30For you had little before I came, and it has increased greatly; our Father has blessed you wherever I turned. But now, when will I provide for my own household also?"
31He asked, "What should I give you?" Jacob replied, "Give me nothing. If you'll do this one thing for me, I'll go back to grazing and guarding your flock.
32Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and that will be my wages. 33So my honesty will testify for me later, when you come to look into my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be counted stolen."
34Laban said, "Good! Let it be as you have said."
35That day Laban removed the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats—each with white on it—and every dark lamb, handing them to his sons. 36He set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.
37Then Jacob took fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the wood. 38He placed the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks—the places where they came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink, 39the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted young. 40Jacob separated the lambs and turned the flock to face the striped animals and all the black ones in Laban's flock. He kept his own flocks apart and did not mix them with Laban's flock. 41Whenever the stronger animals were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in sight of the flock, so they would breed among the branches, 42but for the weaker animals he would not lay them there. So the weaker animals went to Laban, and the stronger ones to Jacob. 43So the man became exceedingly rich and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
