1 ¶ And when Rachel saw that she did not bare Jacob any children, Rachel envied her sister; and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

2 And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

3 And she said, Here is my maid Bilhah, go in to her; and she shall bear for me, that I may have children by her.

4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid as a wife: and Jacob went in unto her.

5 And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

6 And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son: therefore she called his name Dan.

7 And Bilhah Rachel’s maid conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

8 And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.

9 When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a son.

11 And Leah said, A troop comes: and she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah Leah’s maid bore Jacob a second son.

13 And Leah said, I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

14 ¶ And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray you, of your son’s mandrakes.

15 And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken my husband? would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he will lie with you to night for your son’s mandrakes.

16 And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, You must come in to me; for surely I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

17 And God hearkened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob the fifth son.

18 And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

19 And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son.

20 And Leah said, God has endued me with a good dowry; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.

21 And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

22 And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.

23 And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God has taken away my reproach:

24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son.

25 ¶ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to mine 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 the service that I have given you.

27 And Laban said to him, I pray you, if I have found favor in your eyes, remain: for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.

28 And he said, Name your wages, and I will give it.

29 And he said to him, You know how I have served you, and how your animals have fared with me.

30 For you had little before I came, and it has now increased abundantly; and the LORD has blessed you since my coming: but now when shall I provide for my own household also?

31 And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me any thing: if you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flock:

32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from them all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown animals among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and such shall be my wages.

33 In the days ahead, when you come to check on my wages my honesty will testify for me: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, if found with me shall be counted as stolen.

34 And Laban said, Good, I want it to be as you have said.

35 And that day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among lambs, and placed them in the care of his sons.

36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37 ¶ And Jacob took rods of green poplar, and of the almond and plane tree; and pealed white streaks in them, and made the white appear that was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had pealed before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs to which the flocks came to drink, and since they bred when they came to drink.

39 The flocks conceived in front of the rods, and so brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted lambs.

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face the streaked, and the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

41 And it came to pass, whenever the stronger sheep conceived, Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the sheep in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

42 But when the cattle were feeble, he did not put them in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

43 Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had many sheep, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and donkeys.