Genesis Chapter 30
1 When Rachel saw she wasn’t having children, she became jealous of her sister and told Jacob, “Give me children, or I’m going to die!”
2 Jacob’s anger flared, “I’m not God, am I? He’s the One that‘s kept you from having children!”
3 “Here’s my maid Bilhah. Sleep with her so I can have children through her”; 4 so she gave him Bilhah as a wife. 5 She became pregnant and had a son. 6 Rachel said, “God has ‘vindicated’ me. He’s heard me and given me a son”; so she named him Dan. 7 Rachel’s maidservant had a second son. 8 So Rachel said, “I’ve ‘wrestled’ hard with my sister and won”; so she named him Naphtali.
Gen 30:1-8
9 When Leah saw she’d stopped having children, she gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. 10 Zilpah had a son. 11 Leah said, “How ‘fortunate!’” so she named him Gad. 12 Zilpah had a second son. 13 Leah said, “I’m happy, and women will call me ‘happy’”; so she named him Asher.
14 During wheat harvest Reuben found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 But she said, “Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes too?” 16 When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, “You have to sleep with me; I’ve certainly hired you with my son’s mandrakes”; he slept with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she had a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has paid me my ‘wages’ because I gave my maid to my husband”; so she named him Issachar. 19 She had a sixth son, 20 “God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will ‘live with’ me; I’ve had six sons for him”; so she named him Zebulun. 21 Later she had a daughter she named Dinah. 22 God remembered Rachel, listened to her, and opened her womb. 23 So she had a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, “May the LORD give me ‘another’ son.”
Gen 30:9-24
Jacob’s Prosperity
25 At the time when Rachel had Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Let me go now so I can return to my own country. 26 Let me have the wives and little ones I’ve worked for. You know the work I’ve done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If it pleases you, stay. I’ve seen that the LORD has blessed me because of you. 28 Name your wages; I’ll pay it.”
29 But Jacob said,
“You know how I’ve worked for you and how your livestock fared with me. 30 You didn’t have much before I came, but it has increased to a big herd. The LORD has blessed you wherever I turned. But when will I provide for my own family?”
31 Laban asked, “What do you want me to give you?”
Jacob said,
“Don’t give me anything. Do this, and I’ll go on shepherding your flock: 32 let me go through your entire flock today and take out every speckled and spotted sheep, black lamb, and speckled and spotted goat. That’ll be my pay. 33 So my honesty can answer for me later when you figure my pay, consider stolen each one with me that’s not speckled and spotted among the goats or black among the lambs.”
34 “All right.”
Gen 30:25-34
35 That day, Jacob took out the striped and spotted male goats, the speckled and spotted female goats, the ones with white on them, and the black sheep. He gave them to his sons to take care of. 36 Laban put three-days’ distance between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks. 37 Then Jacob took fresh poplar, almond, and plane stakes, and peeled white stripes around them. 38 He set the peeled stakes in front of the flocks by the watering troughs where the flocks drank, and they mated when they came to drink. 39 So the flocks mated by the stakes, and brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted young. 40 Jacob separated the lambs and had the flocks face the striped and the black in Laban’s flock. He set his own herds apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s. 41 In addition, whenever the stronger ones in the flock were mating, Jacob would put the stakes by the troughs so the flock could see them so they’d mate by the stakes. 42 But when the flock was weak, he didn’t put them there; so the weaker ones were Laban’s, and the stronger ones were Jacob’s. 43 Jacob became really prosperous with large flocks, with camels, donkeys, and male and female servants.
Gen 30:35-43