Genesis 30
30
1When Rachel realized that she wasn’t having any children for Jacob, she became jealous of her sister. She told Jacob, “Give me sons or I’ll die!”
2Jacob got angry with Rachel and said, “Am I God? Am I the one who refused you babies?”
3-5Rachel said, “Here’s my maid Bilhah. Sleep with her. Let her substitute for me so I can have a child through her and build a family.” So she gave him her maid Bilhah for a wife and Jacob slept with her. Bilhah became pregnant and gave Jacob a son.
6-8Rachel said, “God took my side and vindicated me. He listened to me and gave me a son.” She named him Dan (Vindication). Rachel’s maid Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel said, “I’ve been in an all-out fight with my sister—and I’ve won.” So she named him Naphtali (Fight).
9-13When Leah saw that she wasn’t having any more children, she gave her maid Zilpah to Jacob for a wife. Zilpah had a son for Jacob. Leah said, “How fortunate!” and she named him Gad (Lucky). When Leah’s maid Zilpah had a second son for Jacob, Leah said, “A happy day! The women will congratulate me in my happiness.” So she named him Asher (Happy).
14One day during the wheat harvest Reuben found some mandrakes in the field and brought them home to his mother Leah. Rachel asked Leah, “Could I please have some of your son’s mandrakes?”
15Leah said, “Wasn’t it enough that you got my husband away from me? And now you also want my son’s mandrakes?”
Rachel said, “All right. I’ll let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16-21When Jacob came home that evening from the fields, Leah was there to meet him: “Sleep with me tonight; I’ve bartered my son’s mandrakes for a night with you.” So he slept with her that night. God listened to Leah; she became pregnant and gave Jacob a fifth son. She said, “God rewarded me for giving my maid to my husband.” She named him Issachar (Bartered). Leah became pregnant yet again and gave Jacob a sixth son, saying, “God has given me a great gift. This time my husband will honor me with gifts—I’ve given him six sons!” She named him Zebulun (Honor). Last of all she had a daughter and named her Dinah.
22-24And then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. She became pregnant and had a son. She said, “God has taken away my humiliation.” She named him Joseph (Add), praying, “May God add yet another son to me.”
* * *
25-26After Rachel had had Joseph, Jacob spoke to Laban, “Let me go back home. Give me my wives and children for whom I’ve served you. You know how hard I’ve worked for you.”
27-28Laban said, “If you please, I have learned through divine inquiry that God has blessed me because of you.” He went on, “So name your wages. I’ll pay you.”
29-30Jacob replied, “You know well what my work has meant to you and how your livestock has flourished under my care. The little you had when I arrived has increased greatly; everything I did resulted in blessings for you. Isn’t it about time that I do something for my own family?”
31-33“So, what should I pay you?”
Jacob said, “You don’t have to pay me a thing. But how about this? I will go back to pasture and care for your flocks. Go through your entire flock today and take out every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages. That way you can check on my honesty when you assess my wages. If you find any goat that’s not speckled or spotted or a sheep that’s not black, you will know that I stole it.”
34“Fair enough,” said Laban. “It’s a deal.”
35-36But that very day Laban removed all the mottled and spotted billy goats and all the speckled and spotted nanny goats, every animal that had even a touch of white on it plus all the black sheep and placed them under the care of his sons. Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Meanwhile Jacob went on tending what was left of Laban’s flock.
37-42But Jacob got fresh branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled the bark, leaving white stripes on them. He stuck the peeled branches in front of the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. When the flocks were in heat, they came to drink and mated in front of the streaked branches. Then they gave birth to young that were streaked or spotted or speckled. Jacob placed the ewes before the dark-colored animals of Laban. That way he got distinctive flocks for himself which he didn’t mix with Laban’s flocks. And when the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob placed branches at the troughs in view of the animals so that they mated in front of the branches. But he wouldn’t set up the branches before the feebler animals. That way the feeble animals went to Laban and the sturdy ones to Jacob.
43The man got richer and richer, acquiring huge flocks, lots and lots of servants, not to mention camels and donkeys.
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Genesis 30: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Genesis 30
30
1Now when Rachel saw that #Gen. 16:1, 2; 29:31she bore Jacob no children, Rachel #Gen. 37:11envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, #1 Sam. 1:5, 6; (Job 5:2)or else I die!”
2And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, #Gen. 16:2; 1 Sam. 1:5“Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3So she said, “Here is #Gen. 16:2my maid Bilhah; go in to her, #Gen. 50:23; Job 3:12and she will bear a child on my knees, #Gen. 16:2, 3that I also may have children by her.” 4Then she gave him Bilhah her maid #Gen. 16:3, 4as wife, and Jacob went in to her. 5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6Then Rachel said, “God has #Gen. 18:25; Ps. 35:24; 43:1; Lam. 3:59judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. 7And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.
9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and #Gen. 30:4gave her to Jacob as wife. 10And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11Then Leah said, “A troop comes!” So she called his name Gad. 12And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters #Prov. 31:28; Luke 1:48will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.
14Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, #Gen. 25:30“Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15But she said to her, #(Num. 16:9, 13)“Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”
And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.
17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. 19Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. 21Afterward she bore a #Gen. 34:1daughter, and called her name Dinah.
22Then God #Gen. 19:29; 1 Sam. 1:19, 20remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and #Gen. 29:31opened her womb. 23And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away #1 Sam. 1:6; Is. 4:1; Luke 1:25my reproach.” 24So she called his name Joseph, and said, #Gen. 35:16–18“The Lord shall add to me another son.”
Jacob’s Agreement with Laban
25And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, #Gen. 24:54, 56“Send me away, that I may go to #Gen. 18:33my own place and to my country. 26Give me my wives and my children #Gen. 29:18–20, 27, 30; Hos. 12:12for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which #Gen. 26:24; 39:3; Is. 61:9I have done for you.”
27And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” 28Then he said, #Gen. 29:15; 31:7, 41“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”
29So Jacob said to him, #Gen. 31:6, 38–40; Matt. 24:45; Titus 2:10“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. 30For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also #(1 Tim. 5:8)provide for my own house?”
31So he said, “What shall I give you?”
And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: 32Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and #Gen. 31:8these shall be my wages. 33So my #Ps. 37:6righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”
34And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” 35So he removed that day the male goats that were #Gen. 31:9–12speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 36Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37Now #Gen. 31:9–12Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. 38And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. 42But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43Thus the man #Gen. 12:16; 30:30became exceedingly prosperous, and #Gen. 13:2; 24:35; 26:13, 14had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
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The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.