Jacob’s Children (continued)
1 And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no
children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob,
Give me children, or else I die.
2 And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he
said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the
fruit of the womb?
3 And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her;
and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have
children by her.
4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and
Jacob went in unto her.
5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son.
6 And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also
heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called
she his name Dan.
7 And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare
Jacob a second son.
8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled
with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his
name Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife.
10 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son.
11 And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his
name Gad.
12 And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son.
13 And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will
call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.
14 And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and
found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his
mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee,
of thy son's mandrakes.
15 And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou
hast taken my husband? and wouldest thou take away my son's
mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with
thee to night for thy son's mandrakes.
16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and
Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto
me; for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes.
And he lay with her that night.
17 And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and
bare Jacob the fifth son.
18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I
have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.
19 And Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth
son.
20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry;
now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him
six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.
21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her
name Dinah.
22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her,
and opened her womb.
23 And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath
taken away my reproach:
24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD
shall add to me another son.
Jacob’s Flocks Increase
25 And it came to pass, when Rachel had born
Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may
go unto mine own place, and to my country.
26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have
served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service
which I have done thee.
27 And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found
favor in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience
that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.
28 And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give
it.
29 And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served
thee, and how thy cattle was with me.
30 For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and
it is now increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath
blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide
for mine own house also?
31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said,
Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing
for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.
32 I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing
from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the
brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled
among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.
33 So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to
come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every
one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and
brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.
34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according
to thy word.
35 And he removed that day the he goats that were
ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she goats that were
speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in
it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into
the hand of his sons.
36 And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and
Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the
hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them,
and made the white appear which was in the rods.
38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the
flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the
flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they
came to drink.
39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought
forth cattle ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted.
40 And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces
of the flocks toward the ring-streaked, and all the brown in
the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves,
and put them not unto Laban's cattle.
41 And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle
did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of
the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among
the rods.
42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in:
so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
43 And the man increased exceedingly, and had much
cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and
asses.
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