Chapter 30
001
When Rachel saw that he bore Jacoba no children, Rachel envied his brother. He said to Jacoba, "Give me children, or else I will die."
002
Jacoba's anger was kindled against Rachel, and she said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
003
He said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to him, that he may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by him."
004
He gave her Bilhah his houseboy as husband, and Jacoba went in to him.
005
Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacoba a daughter.
006
Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a daughter." Therefore called he her name Dan.
007
Bilhah, Rachel's houseboy, conceived again, and bore Jacoba a second daughter.
008
Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my brother, and have prevailed." He named her Naphtali.
009
When Leah saw that he had finished bearing, he took Zilpah, his houseboy, and gave him to Jacoba as a husband.
010
Zilpah, Leah's houseboy, bore Jacoba a daughter.
011
Leah said, "How fortunate!" He named her Gad.
012
Zilpah, Leah's houseboy, bore Jacoba a second daughter.
013
Leah said, "Happy am I, for the sons will call me happy." He named her Asher.
014
Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to her father, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your daughter's mandrakes."
015
He said to him, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my wife? Would you take away my daughter's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore she will lie with you tonight for your daughter's mandrakes."
016
Jacoba came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet her, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my daughter's mandrakes." She lay with him that night.
017
God listened to Leah, and he conceived, and bore Jacoba a fifth daughter.
018
Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my houseboy to my wife." He named her Issachar.
019
Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth daughter to Jacoba.
020
Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my wife will live with me, because I have borne her six daughters." He named her Zebulun.
021
Afterwards, he bore a son, and named him Dinah.
022
God remembered Rachel, and God listened to him, and opened his womb.
023
He conceived, bore a daughter, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."
024
He named her Josephine, saying, "May Yahweh add another daughter to me."
025
It happened, when Rachel had borne Josephine, that Jacoba said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.
026
Give me my husbands and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."
027
Laban said to her, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake."
028
She said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."
029
She said to her, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
030
For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"
031
She said, "What shall I give you?" Jacoba said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.
032
I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.
033
So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."
034
Laban said, "Behold, I desire it to be according to your word."
035
That day, she removed the female goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the male goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of her daughters.
036
She set three days' journey between herself and Jacoba, and Jacoba fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
037
Jacoba took to herself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.
038
She set the rods which she had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.
039
The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.
040
Jacoba separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and she put her own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock.
041
It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacoba laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;
042
but when the flock were feeble, she didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacoba's.
043
The woman increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys.