1. When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.
2. Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”
3. Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she can bear children for me, so that through her I too can have a family.”
4. So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob slept with her.
5. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
6. Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; indeed, He has heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan.
7. Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8. So Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.
Gad and Asher
9. When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
10. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
11. Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
12. Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
13. Then Leah said, “I am happy that the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
14. During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrakes, which he brought to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15. But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16. So when Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And Jacob lay with her that night.
Issachar, Zebulun, and Dinah
17. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18. Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
19. And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
20. Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
21. Afterward, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah.
22. Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
23. and she conceived and bore a son. “God has taken away my disgrace,” she said.
24. So she named him Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
Jacob Prospers
25. After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland.
26. Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
27. But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
28. And he continued, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29. But Jacob replied, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
30. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I also provide for my own household?”
31. “What shall I give you?” Laban asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will continue to pasture and keep your flock.
32. Let me go through all your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.
33. And my honesty will testify for me later on. When you come to check on my wages, any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
34. “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
35. That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.
36. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37. Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees, and made white streaks on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38. Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39. they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
40. Jacob, however, set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but he made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
41. And whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in full view of the flock, so that they would mate by the branches.
42. But if the animals were weak, he did not set them there; so the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
43. In this way Jacob grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and male and female servants, as well as camels and donkeys.