Jacob and Rachel

¹ Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob:

Give me children, or else I die.

² Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said,

[Am] I in Enki’s stead, who hath withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

³ 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 She gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her.

⁵ Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. ⁶ Rachel said, Enki had judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.

⁷ Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. {30:8} And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.

{30:9} When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. {30:10} And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a son.

{30:11} And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. {30:12} And Zilpah Leah’s maid bare Jacob a second son.

{30:13} And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

{30:14} 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 you, of your son’s mandrakes. {30:15} And she said unto her, [Is it] a small matter that you hast taken my husband? and wouldest you take away my son’s mandrakes also?

Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with you to night for your son’s mandrakes. {30:16} 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 you with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

{30:17} Enki hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob the fifth son.

{30:18} And Leah said, Enki hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

{30:19} Leah conceived again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. {30:20} And Leah said, Enki 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.

{30:21} Afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

{30:22} Enki remembered Rachel, and Enki hearkened to her, and opened her womb. {30:23} And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, Enki hath taken away my reproach:

{30:24} She called him Joseph; and said, Enki shall add to me another son.

{30:25} 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. {30:26}

Give [me] my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go: for you knowest my service which I have done you.

{30:27} And Laban said unto him, I pray you, if I have found favour in thine eyes, [tarry: for] I have learned by experience that Enki hath blessed me for your sake.

{30:28} And he said, Appoint me your wages, and I will give [it. ]{30:29} And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served you, and how your cattle was with me. {30:30} For [it was] little which you hadst before I [came,] and it is [now] increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed you since my coming: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

{30:31} And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me any thing: if you wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed [and] keep your flock: {30:32} I will pass through

all your 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.

{30:33} So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before your face: every one that [is] not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

{30:34} And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to your word.

{30:35} And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked 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. {30:36} And he set three days journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. {30:37} And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which [was] in the rods. {30:38} 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. {30:39} And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. {30:40} And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, 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. {30:41} 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. {30:42} But when the cattle were feeble, he put [them] not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. {30:43} And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.