Genesis 30; Genesis 31

Genesis 30

1 When Rachel realized that she could bear Jacob no children, Rachel became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children! If you don't, I may as well be dead."

2 Jacob was angry at Rachel and said, "Do you think I'm God? God alone has kept you from giving birth!"

3 She said, "Here's my servant Bilhah. Sleep with her, and she will give birth for me. Because of her, I will also have children."

4 So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob as his wife, and he slept with her.

5 Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob.

6 Rachel said, "God has judged in my favor, heard my voice, and given me a son." So she named him Dan.

7 Rachel's servant Bilhah became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

8 Rachel said, "I've competed fiercely with my sister, and now I've won." So she named him Naphtali.

9 When Leah realized that she had stopped bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as his wife.

10 Leah's servant Zilpah gave birth to a son for Jacob,

11 and Leah said, "What good luck!" So she named him Gad.

12 Leah's servant Zilpah gave birth to a second son for Jacob,

13 and Leah said, "I'm happy now because women call me happy." So she named him Asher.

14 During the wheat harvest, Reuben found some erotic herbs in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Give me your son's erotic herbs."

15 Leah replied, "Isn't it enough that you've taken my husband? Now you want to take my son's erotic herbs too?" Rachel said, "For your son's erotic herbs, Jacob may sleep with you tonight."

16 When Jacob came back from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must sleep with me because I've paid for you with my son's erotic herbs." So he slept with her that night.

17 God responded to Leah. She became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.

18 Leah said, "God gave me what I paid for, what I deserved for giving my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.

19 Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob,

20 and she said, "God has given me a wonderful gift. Now my husband will honor me since I've borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

21 After this, she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22 Then God remembered Rachel, responded to her, and let her conceive.

23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, "God has taken away my shame."

24 She named him Joseph, saying to herself, May the LORD give me another son.

25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me off so that I can go to my own place and my own country.

26 Give me my wives and children whom I've worked for, and I will go. You know the work I've done for you."

27 Laban said to him, "Do me this favor. I've discovered by a divine sign that the LORD has blessed me because of you,

28 so name your price and I will pay it."

29 Jacob said to him, "You know how I've worked for you, and how well your livestock have done with me.

30 While in my care, what little you had has multiplied a great deal. The LORD blessed you wherever I took your livestock. Now, when will I be able to work for my own household too?"

31 Laban said, "What will I pay you?" Jacob said, "Don't pay me anything. If you will do this for me, I will take care of your flock again, and keep a portion.

32 I will go through the entire flock today, taking out all of the speckled and spotted sheep, all of the black male lambs, and all of the spotted and speckled female goats. That will be my price.

33 I will be completely honest with you: when you come to check on our agreement, every female goat with me that isn't speckled or spotted and every male lamb with me that isn't black will be considered stolen."

34 Laban said, "All right; let's do it."

35 However, on that very day Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats and all of the speckled and spotted female goats—any with some white in it—and all of the black male lambs, and gave them to his sons.

36 He put a three-day trip between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was watching the rest of Laban's flock.

37 Then Jacob took new branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees; and he peeled white stripes on them, exposing the branches' white color.

38 He set the branches that he had peeled near the watering troughs so that they were in front of the flock when they drank, because they often mated when they came to drink.

39 When the flock mated in front of the branches, they gave birth to striped, speckled, and spotted young.

40 Jacob sorted out the lambs, turning the flock to face the striped and black ones in Laban's flock but keeping his flock separate, setting them apart from Laban's flock.

41 Whenever the strongest of the flock mated, Jacob put the branches in front of them near the watering troughs so that they mated near the branches.

42 But he didn't put branches up for the weakest of the flock. So the weakest became Laban's and the strongest Jacob's.

43 The man Jacob became very, very rich: he owned large flocks, female and male servants, camels, and donkeys.

Genesis 31

1 Jacob heard that Laban's sons were saying, "Jacob took everything our father owned and from it he produced all of this wealth."

2 And Jacob saw that Laban no longer liked him as much as he used to.

3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your relatives, and I will be with you."

4 So Jacob sent for Rachel and Leah and summoned them into the field where his flock was.

5 He said to them, "I am aware that your father no longer likes me as much as he used to. But my father's God has been with me.

6 You know that I've worked for your father as hard as I could.

7 But your father cheated me and changed my payment ten times. Yet God didn't let him harm me.

8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your payment,' the whole flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, ‘The striped ones will be your payment,' the whole flock gave birth to striped young.

9 God took away your father's livestock and gave them to me.

10 When the flocks were mating, I looked up and saw in a dream that the male goats that mounted the flock were striped, speckled, and spotted.

11 In the dream, God's messenger said to me, ‘Jacob!' and I said, ‘I'm here.'

12 He said, ‘Look up and watch all the striped, speckled, and spotted male goats mounting the flock. I've seen everything that Laban is doing to you.

13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a sacred pillar and where you made a solemn promise to me. Now, get up and leave this country and go back to the land of your relatives.'"

14 Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any share or inheritance left for us in our father's household?

15 Doesn't he think of us as foreigners since he sold us and has even used up the payment he received for us?

16 All of the wealth God took from our father belongs to us and our children. Now, do everything God told you to do."

17 So Jacob got up, put his sons and wives on the camels,

18 and set out with all of his livestock and all of his possessions that he had acquired in Paddan-aram in order to return to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

19 Now, while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole the household's divine images that belonged to her father.

20 Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not sending word to him that he was leaving.

21 So Jacob and his entire household left. He got up, crossed the river, and set out directly for the mountains of Gilead.

22 Three days later, Laban found out that Jacob had gone,

23 so Laban took his brothers with him, chased Jacob for seven days, and caught up with him in the mountains of Gilead.

24 That night, God appeared to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, "Be careful and don't say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other."

25 Laban reached Jacob after Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountains. So Laban and his brothers also pitched theirs in the mountains of Gilead.

26 Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You have deceived me and taken off with my daughters as if they were prisoners of war.

27 Why did you leave secretly, deceiving me, and not letting me know? I would've sent you off with a celebration, with songs and tambourines and harps.

28 You didn't even let me kiss my sons and my daughters good-bye. Now you've acted like a fool,

29 and I have the power to punish you. However, your father's God told me yesterday, ‘Be careful and don't say anything hastily to Jacob one way or the other.'

30 You've rushed off now because you missed your father's household so much, but why did you steal my gods?"

31 Jacob responded to Laban, "I was afraid and convinced myself that you would take your daughters away from me.

32 Whomever you find with your divine images won't live. Identify whatever I have that is yours, in front of your brothers, and take it." Jacob didn't know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 Laban went into Jacob's tent, Leah's tent, and her two servants' tent and didn't find them. So he left Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.

34 Now Rachel had taken the divine images and put them into the camel's saddlebag and sat on them. Laban felt around in the whole tent but couldn't find them.

35 Rachel said to her father, "Sir, don't be angry with me because I can't get up for you; I'm having my period." He searched but couldn't find the divine images.

36 Jacob was angry and complained to Laban, "What have I done wrong and what's my crime that you've tracked me down like this?

37 You've now felt through all of my baggage, and what have you found from your household's belongings? Put it in front of our relatives, and let them decide between us.

38 For these twenty years I've been with you, your female sheep and goats haven't miscarried, and I haven't eaten your flock's rams.

39 When animals were killed, I didn't bring them to you but took the loss myself. You demanded compensation from me for any animals poached during the day or night.

40 The dry heat consumed me during the day, and the frost at night; I couldn't sleep.

41 I've now spent twenty years in your household. I worked for fourteen years for your two daughters and for six years for your flock, and you changed my pay ten times.

42 If the God of my father—the God of Abraham and the awesome one of Isaac—hadn't been with me, you'd have no doubt sent me away without anything. God saw my harsh treatment and my hard work and reprimanded you yesterday."

43 Laban responded and told Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do now about my daughters and about their sons?

44 Come, let's make a treaty, you and me, and let something be our witness."

45 So Jacob took a stone, set it up as a sacred pillar,

46 and said to his relatives, "Gather stones." So they took stones, made a mound, and ate there near the mound.

47 Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 Laban said, "This mound is our witness today," and, therefore, he too named it Galeed.

49 He also named it Mizpah, because he said, "The LORD will observe both of us when we are separated from each other.

50 If you treat my daughters badly and if you marry other women, though we aren't there, know that God observed our witness."

51 Laban said to Jacob, "Here is this mound and here is the sacred pillar that I've set up for us.

52 This mound and the sacred pillar are witnesses that I won't travel beyond this mound and that you won't travel beyond this mound and this pillar to do harm.

53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor will keep order between us." So Jacob gave his word in the name of the awesome one of his father Isaac.

54 Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and invited his relatives to a meal. They ate together and spent the night on the mountain.

55 Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his sons and daughters, blessed them, and left to go back to his own place.