Chapter
30
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."
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?"
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."
He gave her Bilhah his houseboy as husband, and Jacoba went in to him.
Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacoba a daughter.
Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a daughter." Therefore called he her name Dan.
Bilhah, Rachel's houseboy, conceived again, and bore Jacoba a second daughter.
Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my brother, and have prevailed." He named her Naphtali.
When Leah saw that he had finished bearing, he took Zilpah, his houseboy, and gave him to Jacoba as a husband.
Zilpah, Leah's houseboy, bore Jacoba a daughter.
Leah said, "How fortunate!" He named her Gad.
Zilpah, Leah's houseboy, bore Jacoba a second daughter.
Leah said, "Happy am I, for the sons will call me happy." He named her Asher.
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."
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."
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.
God listened to Leah, and he conceived, and bore Jacoba a fifth daughter.
Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my houseboy to my wife." He named her Issachar.
Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth daughter to Jacoba.
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.
Afterwards, he bore a son, and named him Dinah.
God remembered Rachel, and God listened to him, and opened his womb.
He conceived, bore a daughter, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."
He named her Josephine, saying, "May Yahweh add another daughter to me."
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.
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."
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."
She said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."
She said to her, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.
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?"
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.
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.
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."
Laban said, "Behold, I desire it to be according to your word."
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.
She set three days' journey between herself and Jacoba, and Jacoba fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
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.
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.
The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.
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.
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;
but when the flock were feeble, she didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacoba's.
The woman increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, male servants and female servants, and camels and donkeys.