1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die!” 2 Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” 3 She said, “Here is my female servant Bilhah. Sleep with her, and she will bear children on my knees, so that I too may have children through her.” 4 She gave him her female servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob slept with her. 5 Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. 6 Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” That is why she named him Dan. 7 Rachel’s female servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel said, “With mighty struggles I have wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali. 9 When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her female servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Leah’s female servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son. 11 Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” So she named him Gad. 12 Leah’s female servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. 13 Leah said, “How happy I am! For women call me happy.” So she named him Asher. 14 During the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” 15 She said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you take my son’s mandrakes too?” Rachel said, “Then he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come to me, for I have indeed hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. 17 God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. 18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my female servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19 Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. 20 Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. 21 Afterward she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. 22 God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 She named him Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add another son to me.” 25 After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I may go to my own place and to my country. 26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know the service I have rendered you.” 27 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 He said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.” 29 Jacob said to him, “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 with my arrival. But now, when will I also provide for my own household?” 31 He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You need not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock. 32 I will go through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted animal, every dark one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. Such animals will be my wages. 33 My honesty will testify for me in time to come, when you come to inspect my wages. Every goat with me that is not speckled or spotted, and every sheep that is not dark, will be considered stolen.” 34 Laban said, “Agreed. Let it be as you have said.” 35 That day Laban removed the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats, all that had white in them, and all the dark sheep. He placed them in the care of his sons. 36 He put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock. 37 Jacob took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled white strips in them, exposing the white of the rods. 38 He set the rods he had peeled in front of the flocks in the channels, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. They mated when they came to drink. 39 The flocks mated before the rods and gave birth to striped, speckled, and spotted young. 40 Jacob separated the lambs and turned the flock to face the striped animals and all the dark ones in Laban’s flock. He set his own flocks apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger females in the flock were mating, Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs, so that they would mate among the rods. 42 But when the animals were weak, he did not put them there. So the weak belonged to Laban and the strong to Jacob. 43 The man grew immensely prosperous and had large flocks, female and male servants, camels and donkeys.