Genesis 30

¹And Rachel saw that she had not borne [any children] to Jacob, and Rachel envied her sister, and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, and if not, I am dead.’

²And Jacob became angry with Rachel, and he said, ‘Am I instead of God, Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’

³So she said, ‘Here is my maidservant Bilhah; come to her, and she will bear [children] on my knees, so that I, too, will be built up from her.’

⁴So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah for a wife, and Jacob came to her.

⁵And Bilhah conceived, and she bore Jacob a son.

⁶And Rachel said, ‘God has judged me, and He has also hearkened to my voice and has given me a son’; so she named him Dan.

⁷And Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸And Rachel said, ‘[With] divine bonds I have been joined to my sister; I have also prevailed’; so she named him Naftali.

⁹When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing [children], she took her maidservant Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob for a wife.

¹⁰And Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bore Jacob a son.

¹¹And Leah said, ‘Luck has come’; so she named him Gad.

¹²And Zilpah, Leah's maidservant, bore Jacob a second son.

¹³And Leah said, ‘Because of my good fortune, for women have declared me fortunate’; so she named him Asher.

¹⁴Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest, and he found dudaim in the field and brought them to Leah, his mother, and Rachel said to Leah, ‘Now give me some of your son's dudaim.’

¹⁵And she said to her, ‘Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband, that [you wish] also to take my son's dudaim?’ So Rachel said, ‘Therefore, he shall sleep with you tonight as payment for your son's dudaim.’

¹⁶When Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah came forth toward him, and she said, ‘You shall come to me, because I have hired you with my son's dudaim,’ and he slept with her on that night.

¹⁷And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸And Leah said, ‘God has given [me] my reward for I have given my maidservant to my husband’; so she named him Issachar.

¹⁹And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰And Leah said, ‘God has given me a good portion. This time, my husband will live with me, for I have borne him six sons’; so she named him Zebulun.

²¹And afterwards, she bore a daughter, and she named her Dinah.

²²And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and He opened her womb.

²³And she conceived and bore a son, and she said, ‘God has taken away my reproach.’

²⁴So she named him Joseph, saying, ‘May the Lord grant me yet another son!’

²⁵It came to pass when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me away, and I will go to my place and to my land.

²⁶Give [me] my wives and my children for whom I worked for you, and I will go, for you know my work, which I have worked for you.’

²⁷And Laban said to him, ‘If only I have now found favor in your eyes! I have divined, and the Lord has blessed me for your sake.’

²⁸Then he said, ‘Specify your wages for me, and I will give [them].’

²⁹And he said to him, ‘You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock was with me.

³⁰For the little that you had before me has increased in multitude, and the Lord blessed you upon my arrival; but now, when will I, too, provide [something] for my household?’

³¹And he said, ‘What shall I give you?’ And Jacob said, ‘You shall give me nothing; if you do this thing for me, I will return, I will pasture your flocks, [and] I will watch [them].

³²I will pass throughout all your flocks today, removing from there every speckled and spotted kid, and every brown lamb among the sheep, and [every] spotted and speckled [one from] among the goats, and this shall be my wages.

³³And my righteousness will testify for me at a future date for it will come upon my wages before you. Whatever is not speckled or spotted among the goats or brown among the sheep [shall be counted as] stolen with me.’

³⁴And Laban said, ‘Very well! If only it would be as you say!’

³⁵And he removed on that day the ringed and the spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, whichever had white on it, and all the brown [from] among the sheep, and he gave [them] into the hands of his sons.

³⁶And he set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob tended Laban's remaining animals.

³⁷And Jacob took himself moist rod[s] of trembling poplar and hazelnut, and chestnut, and he peeled white streaks upon them, baring the white that was on the rods.

³⁸And he thrust the rods that he had peeled, into the gutters in the watering troughs where the animals would come to drink opposite the [other] animals, and they would come into heat when they came to drink.

³⁹And the flocks came into heat by the rods, and the animals bore ringed, spotted, and striped [young].

⁴⁰And Jacob separated the sheep, and he turned the faces of the animals toward the ringed one[s] and every brown one among Laban's animals, and he made himself flocks by himself, and he did not place them with Laban's animals.

⁴¹And it came to pass, that whenever the animals that were bearing their first would come into heat, Jacob would place the rods in the troughs, before the eyes of the animals, [in order] to bring them into heat by [means of] the rods.

⁴²But if the animals would delay, he would not place them, so that the ones that delayed were Laban's, and the ones that bore their first became Jacob's.

⁴³And the man became exceedingly wealthy, and he had prolific animals, and maidservants and manservants, and camels and donkeys.