Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible RHE
New Revised Standard NRS
1 And Rachel seeing herself without children, envied her sister, and said to her husband: Give me children, otherwise I shall die.
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When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!"
2 And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb?
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Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
3 But she said: I have here my servant Bala: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children by her.
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Then she said, "Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her."
4 And she gave him Bala in marriage: who,
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So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.
5 When her husband had gone in unto her, conceived and bore a son.
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And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
6 And Rachel said: The Lord hath judged for me, and hath heard my voice, giving me a son; and therefore she called his name Dan.
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Then Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son"; therefore she named him Dan.
7 And again Bala conceived, and bore another,
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Rachel's maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8 For whom Rachel said: God hath compared me with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called him Nephthali.
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Then Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed"; so she named him Naphtali.
9 Lia perceiving that she had left of bearing, gave Zelpha, her handmaid, to her husband.
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When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
10 And when she had conceived, and brought forth a son,
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Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
11 She said: Happily. And therefore called his name Gad.
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And Leah said, "Good fortune!" so she named him Gad.
12 Zelpha also bore another.
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Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
13 And Lia said: This is for my happiness: for women will call me blessed. Therefore she called him Aser.
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And Leah said, "Happy am I! For the women will call me happy"; so she named him Asher.
14 And Ruben going out in the time of the wheat harvest into the field, found mandrakes: which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of thy son’s mandrakes.
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In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."
15 She answered: Dost thou think it a small matter, that thou hast taken my husband from me, unless thou take also my son’s mandrakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with thee this night, for thy son’s mandrakes.
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But 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 said, "Then he may lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."
16 And when Jacob returned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: Thou shalt come in unto me, because I have hired thee for my son’s mandrakes. And he slept with her that night.
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When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come in to me; for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night.
17 And God heard her prayers; and she conceived: and bore a fifth son:
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And God heeded Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18 And said: God hath given me a reward, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. And she called his name Issachar.
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Leah said, "God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband"; so she named him Issachar.
19 And Lia conceived again, and bore the sixth son,
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And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.
20 And said: God hath endowed me with a good dowry; this turn also my husband will be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and therefore she called his name Zabulon.
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Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons"; so she named him Zebulun.
21 After whom she bore a daughter, named Dina.
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Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
22 The Lord also remembering Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb.
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Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.
23 And she conceived, and bore a son, saying: God hath taken away my reproach.
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She conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach";
24 And she called his name Joseph: saying: The Lord give me also another son.
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and she named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord add to me another son!"
25 And when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his father in law: Send me away, that I may return into my country, and to my land.
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When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.
26 Give me my wives, and my children, for whom I have served thee, that I may depart: thou knowest the service that I have rendered thee.
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Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the service I have given you."
27 Laban said to him: Let me find favour in thy sight: I have learned, by experience, that God hath blessed me for thy sake.
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But Laban said to him, "If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you;
28 Appoint thy wages which I shall give thee.
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name your wages, and I will give it."
29 But he answered: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how great thy possession hath been in my hands.
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Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.
30 Thou hadst but little before I came to thee, and now thou art become rich: and the Lord hath blessed thee at my coming. It is reasonable, therefore, that I should now provide also for my own house.
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For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?"
31 And Laban said: What shall I give thee? But he said: I require nothing; but if thou wilt do what I demand, I will feed and keep thy sheep again.
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He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything; if you will do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it:
32 Go round through all thy flocks, and separate all the sheep of divers colours, and speckled; and all that is brown and spotted, and of divers colours, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall be my wages.
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let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.
33 And my justice shall answer for me tomorrow before thee, when the time of the bargain shall come; and all that is not of divers colours, and spotted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall accurse me of theft.
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So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen."
34 And Laban said: I like well what thou demandest.
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Laban said, "Good! Let it be as you have said."
35 And he separated the same day the she goats, and the sheep, and the he goats, and the rams of divers colours, and spotted; and all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he delivered into the hands of his sons.
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But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons;
36 And he set the space of three days journey betwixt himself and his son in law, who fed the rest of his flock.
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and he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban's flock.
37 And Jacob took green rods of poplar, and of almond, and of plane trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was taken off, in the parts that were pilled, there appeared whiteness: but the parts that were whole, remained green: and by this means the colour was divers.
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Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods.
38 And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out; that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might conceive.
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He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,
39 And it came to pass, that in the very heat of coition, the sheep beheld the rods, and brought forth spotted, and of divers colours, and speckled.
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the flocks bred in front of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and spotted.
40 And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams; and all the white and the black were Laban’s, and the rest were Jacob’s, when the flocks were separated one from the other.
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Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock.
41 So when the ewes went first to ram, Jacob put the rods in the troughs of water before the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might conceive while they were looking upon them.
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Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods,
42 But when the later coming was, and the last conceiving, he did not put them. And those that were lateward, became Laban’s; and they of the first time, Jacob’s.
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but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
43 And the man was enriched exceedingly, and he had many flocks, maidservants and menservants, camels and asses.
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Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.
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New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.