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1 Rachel was jealous of Leah. Leah was having babies all the time, but she had none. She got really wild with Jacob and said, “Give me children. I will die if you do not give me children.”
2 Jacob was really angry with Rachel and said, “I am not God! He is the one who has stopped you from having children.”
3 Rachel said, “Here is Bilhah, my young working girl. I want you to sleep with her like she is your wife. In that way, she can have a baby for me, and then I can have a family too.”
4-5 So Rachel gave Bilhah, her young working girl to Jacob to be another wife for him. Jacob slept with Bilhah and she gave Jacob a son.
6 Rachel said, “God has heard me and given me a son” and she named him Dan.
7 Jacob slept with Bilhah, Rachel's working girl again, and she gave him a second son.
8 Rachel said, “My sister and I are jealousing each other all the time, but I am the winner.” So she named the baby Naftali.
9 Leah knew that she could not have any more children and so she gave her working girl named Zilpah to Jacob to be another wife for him. She did this so that she could have another baby that way.
10 So Jacob slept with Zilpah, Leah's working girl and she had a baby boy.
11 Leah said, “I am lucky to have another son”, and she named him Gad.
12 Jacob slept with Zilpah again and she gave Jacob another son.
13 Then Leah said, “I am really happy. Other women will see me and say, ‘Look at her, she is really happy now!’ ” Leah named the baby, Asher.
14 It was the right time of the year to get all the food seeds out of the paddocks. The men were collecting the seeds and putting them in sheds. One day, Reuben, Jacob's oldest son went out into the paddocks and found some plants called Mandrakes growing there. He picked them and took them to his mother Leah. But Rachel saw the plants and said to Leah, “Please give me some of those Mandrakes so that I can eat them and have a baby for myself.” You see, people thought that Mandrakes had special powers and that if you ate them, you would have a baby.
15 Leah was angry and said, “You have already stopped me sleeping with my husband. Do you have to take my son's Mandrakes as well?”
Rachel answered and said, “I tell you what, if you give me those plants, I will let you sleep with Jacob tonight.”
16 That night, as Jacob came home from working in the paddocks, Leah went out and said to him, “You have to sleep with me tonight. I paid for you. I gave Rachel the Mandrake plants that Reuben found in the paddock today. I gave them to her so that I could sleep with you tonight.”
And so, Jacob slept with his first wife Leah that night.
17 God was kind to Leah and gave her baby number 5.
18 She said, “I gave Jacob my young working girl and God has paid me back by giving me a son.” Leah named the baby Iss-a-car.
19-20 Jacob slept with Leah again and she had another baby boy. She now had 6 sons and so she said, “God has given me a good present. Must be Jacob will respect me now. I have given him 6 sons.” So she named him, Zeb-you-lun.
21 Later on Leah had a baby girl and named her Dinah.
22 God saw how sad Rachel was, and so he answered her prayers. He made a way for her to have a baby.
23 Jacob slept with Rachel and she had a son. Rachel said after he was born, “Now God has taken away my shame.”
24 She named the baby Joseph but said, “Lord, can I have another son please?”
Jacob tricked Laban
25-26 A little bit later, after Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban, “I have worked hard for you for 14 years. I have paid for my wives and so, please let me take them and my children to live back in my own country. That is where my home is.”
27 But Laban said, “If I have made you happy, please stay here with me. In our culture we have a special ceremony way to find out about things. I did that special ceremony and now I know that God has used you to do good things for me. I am a rich man now.
28 How much can I pay you to stay with me?”
29 Jacob answered, “You know that I have worked hard for you and you have a lot more sheep and cattle now.
30 When I came to live here, you only had a few animals, but now you are rich. Everything I did for you worked out well. You see, God has used me to give you good things. But it is time for me to do something good for my own family.”
31 Laban asked, “What can I give you?”
Jacob answered, “I do not want you to give me anything. Just let me do one thing and I will stay and look after your animals.
32 Let me look at all your animals and take all the sheep and goats that have black spots in their wool or hair. And I will take all the young sheep that have black wool. Those animals will be my pay.
33 This is the test for you to know if I am an honest man. When you look at all my animals, you will only find animals that have dark skin or have spots. That way you will know that I have not stolen any animals from you.”
34 Straight away, Laban said, “Ok, I agree with that plan.”
35 That same day, Laban tried to trick Jacob again. He took all the boy goats that had stripes or spots in their fur and all the goats that had spots or had white patches in their fur away from all the animals that had only one colour. He did the same with all the black sheep, and then told his sons to guard them.
36 Laban and his sons rounded up all those animals and walked with them for 3 days until they were a long way from Jacob's camp. Jacob stayed behind and looked after the rest of Laban's animals.
37 Jacob knew that his uncle was tricking him again, and so he cut some sticks from 3 different kinds of trees. He cut some of the bark off the sticks so that they had stripes.
38-40 He put those sticks in the animal's water tanks. When the animals came to drink from those tanks, they mated and when the baby animals were born they had stripes and spots in their fur.
In the mating season, Jacob put the boy animals that were white in with his spotty and dark coloured animals. The animals mated, and when the babies were born they were all spotty and dark coloured. Then Jacob took all of the spotted and dark coloured animals and put them in his own paddock. He made sure that his animals stayed away from Laban's animals. This is how Jacob made his mob of animals grow bigger in number.
41-42 When Jacob saw the stronger sheep and goats start to mate, he put the special sticks in front of them, but when the weak sheep and goats started to mate he took those sticks away. In the end, Jacob's sheep and goats were stronger than Laban's.
43 Jacob was very rich now. He had the biggest mob of animals, a lot of workers, as well as camels and donkeys.