Bereshet (Genesis) - Chapter 30

30:1 When Rachel saw that she bore Ya'aqub no children Rachel envied her sister. She said to Ya'aqub, "Give me children, or else I will die."

30:2 The anger of Ya'aqub was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

30:3 She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her." 30:4 She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Ya'aqub went in to her. 30:5 Bilhah conceived, and bore Ya'aqub a son. 30:6 Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan. 30:7 Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Ya'aqub a second son. 30:8 Rachel said, "I have besought Mar-Yah, and have pleaded with my sister and I have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

30:9 When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Ya'aqub as a wife. 30:10 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Ya'aqub a son. 30:11 Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad. 30:12 Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Ya'aqub a second son. 30:13 Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy." She named him Asher.

30:14 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, "Please give me some of the mandrakes of your son."

30:15 She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you also take away the mandrakes of my son?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will rape* you tonight for the mandrakes of your son."

30:16 Ya'aqub came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with the mandrakes of my son."

He lay with her that night. 30:17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Ya'aqub a fifth son. 30:18 Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar. 30:19 Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Ya'aqub. 30:20 Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun. 30:21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

30:22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb. 30:23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach." 30:24 She named him Yoseph, saying, "May Mar-Yah add another son to me."

30:25 It happened, when Rachel had borne Yoseph, that Ya'aqub said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my 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 know my service with which I have served you."

30:27 Laban said to him, "If now I have found favour in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Mar-Yah has blessed me for your sake." 30:28 He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

30:29 He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. 30:30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Mar-Yah has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

30:31 He said, "What shall I give you?"

Ya'aqub said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. 30:32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire. 30:33 So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

30:34 Laban said, "Behold, let it be according to your word."

30:35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. 30:36 He set three days' journey between himself and Ya'aqub, and Ya'aqub fed the rest of the flocks of Laban.

30:37 Ya'aqub took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 30:38 He set the rods that he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. 30:39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. 30:40 Ya'aqub separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them into the flock of Laban. 30:41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Ya'aqub laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; 30:42 but when the flock were feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Ya'aqub's. 30:43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.