Shared Word Translation
Genesis 30
The Children of Jacob
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die.” 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?” Then she said, “See, here is my servant Bilhah. Go in to her, so that she may bear upon my knees and that through her I too may have children.” So she gave him Bilhah her servant as a wife, and Jacob went in to her. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, “God has judged me and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan. Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, “Good fortune has come!” So she called his name Gad. And Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, “Happy am I! For women will call me happy.” So she called his name Asher.
In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to Leah his mother. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” But she said to her, “Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? Would you also take my son’s mandrakes?” Rachel said, “Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” 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 surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that night.
And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift. Now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun. Afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” So she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son.”
Jacob Prospers
As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have rendered to you.” But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.” And he said, “Name your wages, and I will give them.”
Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have prospered with me. 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 also provide for my own household?” He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: 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. These shall be my wages. So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come to examine my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats or black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be considered stolen.” Laban said, “Good. Let it be according to your word.”
But that day he removed the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one that had white on it, and every black lamb, and put them in the care of his sons. And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.
Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods. And he set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. Since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the rods and produced striped, speckled, and spotted young. Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flock toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. And he put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs, that they might breed among the rods. But for the weaker of the flock he would not lay them there. So the weaker became Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks and female servants and male servants and camels and donkeys.