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30
1 When Rachel [Ewe sheep] saw that she bore Jacob [Supplanter] no children, Rachel [Ewe sheep] envied her sister. She said to Jacob [Supplanter], “Give me children, or else I will die.”
2 Jacob [Supplanter]’s anger burned against Rachel [Ewe sheep], and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 She said, “Behold, my maid Bilhah [Bashful]. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.” 4 She gave him Bilhah [Bashful] her servant as wife, and Jacob [Supplanter] went in to her. 5 Bilhah [Bashful] conceived, and bore Jacob [Supplanter] a son. 6 Rachel [Ewe sheep] said, “God has judged me, and has also sh'ma ·heard obeyed· my voice, and has given me a son.” Therefore called she his name Dan [He judged]. 7 Bilhah [Bashful], Rachel [Ewe sheep]’s servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob [Supplanter] a second son. 8 Rachel [Ewe sheep] said, “With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali [My wrestling].
9 When Leah [Weary] saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah [Frailty], her servant, and gave her to Jacob [Supplanter] as a wife. 10 Zilpah [Frailty], Leah [Weary]’s servant, bore Jacob [Supplanter] a son. 11 Leah [Weary] said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad [Good fortune]. 12 Zilpah [Frailty], Leah [Weary]’s servant, bore Jacob [Supplanter] a second son. 13 Leah [Weary] said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy.” She named him Asher [Happy].
(4) 14 Reuben [See, a son!] went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah [Weary]. Then Rachel [Ewe sheep] said to Leah [Weary], “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 She said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes, also?”
Rachel [Ewe sheep] said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 Jacob [Supplanter] came from the field in the evening, and Leah [Weary] went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.”
He lay with her that night. 17 God sh'ma ·heard obeyed· to Leah [Weary], and she conceived, and bore Jacob [Supplanter] a fifth son. 18 Leah [Weary] said, “God has given me my hire, because I gave my servant to my husband.” She named him Issachar [Hire, Reward]. 19 Leah [Weary] conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob [Supplanter]. 20 Leah [Weary] 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 [Living together]. 21 Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
22 God remembered Rachel [Ewe sheep], and God sh'ma ·heard obeyed· to her, and opened her womb. 23 She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” 24 She named him Joseph [May he add], saying, “May Adonai add another son to me.”
25 When Rachel [Ewe sheep] had borne Joseph [May he add], Jacob [Supplanter] said to Laban [White], “Send me away, 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 my service with which I have served you.”
27 Laban [White] said to him, “If now I have found chen ·grace· in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Adonai has blessed me for your sake.” (5) 28 He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.”
29 He said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. 30 For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Adonai has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”
31 He said, “What shall I give you?”
Jacob [Supplanter] said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. 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. 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 considered stolen.”
34 Laban [White] said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”
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. 36 He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob [Supplanter], and Jacob [Supplanter] fed the rest of Laban [White]’s flocks.
37 Jacob [Supplanter] 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. 38 He set the rods which 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. 39 The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40 Jacob [Supplanter] separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban [White]: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban [White]’s flock. 41 Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob [Supplanter] laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; 42 but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the more feeble were Laban [White]’s, and the stronger Jacob [Supplanter]’s. 43 The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

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© 2016 Thomas Robinson