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¹ Rachel when she sawe that she bare Iacob no children, she enuied her sister, and sayde vnto Iacob: Geue me children, or els I am but dead.² And Iacobs anger was kyndled agaynst Rachel, and sayde: Am I in Gods steade, whiche kepeth from thee the fruite of thy wombe?³ Then she sayde: Here is my mayde Bilha, go in vnto her, & she shall beare vpon my knees, that I also may haue chyldren by her.⁴ And she gaue him Bilha her handmayde to wyfe: and Iacob went in vnto her.⁵ And Bilha conceaued, and bare Iacob a sonne.⁶ Then saide Rachel: God hath geuen sentence on my side, and hath also heard my voyce, and hath geuen me a sonne: therfore called she hym Dan.⁷ And Bilha Rachels seruant conceaued againe, & bare Iacob another sonne.⁸ And Rachel said: With godly wrastlynges haue I wrastled with my sister, & haue gotten the vpper hande: and she called his name Nephthali.⁹ When Lea sawe that she had left bearyng chyldren she toke Zilpha her mayde, and gaue her Iacob to wyfe.¹⁰ And Zilpha Leas mayde bare Iacob a sonne.¹¹ Then sayde Lea, Good lucke: and called his name Gad.¹² And Zilpha Leas seruaunt bare Iacob an other sonne.¹³ Then saide Lea: happy am I, for the daughters wyll call me blessed: and called his name Aser.

¹⁴ And Ruben went out in the dayes of the wheate haruest, & founde Mandragoras in the fielde, and brought them vnto his mother Lea. Then said Rachel to Lea: Geue me I praye thee of thy sonnes Mandragoras.¹⁵ To whom Lea aunswered: Is it not enough that thou hast taken away my husband, but wouldest take away my sonnes Mandragoras also? Then saide Rachel: well, let hym sleepe with thee this night for thy sonnes Mandragoras.¹⁶ And Iacob came from the fielde at euen, and Lea went out to meete hym, and sayde: thou shalt come in to me, for I haue bought thee in deede with my sonne Mandragoras. And he slept with her that same nyght.¹⁷ And God hearde Lea, that she conceaued, and bare Iacob the fift sonne.¹⁸ Then sayde Lea: God hath geuen me a rewarde, because I gaue my mayden to my husbande: and she called him Isachar.¹⁹ And Lea conceaued yet agayne, and bare Iacob the sixt sonne.²⁰ And Lea sayde: God hath endued me with a good dowrie, nowe wyll my husbande dwell with me, because I haue borne hym sixe sonnes: and called his name Zabulon.²¹ After that, she bare a daughter, and called her name Dina.²² And God remembred Rachel, & God hearde her, and made her fruitefull,²³ So that she conceaued & bare a sonne: and sayde, God hath taken awaye my rebuke.²⁴ And she called his name Ioseph, saying: the Lorde geue me yet another sonne.

²⁵ Assoone as Rachel had borne Ioseph, Iacob sayde to Laban: Send me away, that I maye go vnto my owne place, and to my countrey.²⁶ Geue me my wyues and my chyldren for whom I haue serued thee, and let me go: for thou knowest what seruice I haue done thee.²⁷ To whom Laban aunswered: I pray thee, yf I haue founde fauour in thy syght [tary]: for I haue proued that the Lorde blessed me for thy sake.²⁸ Also he sayde: Appoynt what thy rewarde shalbe, and I wyll geue [it thee.]²⁹ But he saide vnto him: Thou knowest what seruice I haue done thee, and in what takyng thy cattell haue ben vnder me:³⁰ For that litle which thou haddest before I came, is nowe increased into a multitude, and the Lord hath blessed thee through my trauell: but nowe when shall I make prouision for myne owne house also?³¹ And he sayde: What shall I then geue thee? And Iacob aunswered, Thou shalt geue me nothyng at all: yf thou wylt do this thyng for me, then wyll I turne agayne, feede thy sheepe, and kepe them.³² I wyll go about all thy flockes this day, and seperate from them all the cattell that are spotted & of diuers colours: and all the blacke among the sheepe, & the partie & spotted amongst the kiddes [the same] shalbe my rewarde.³³ So shall my ryghteousnes aunswere for me in time to come: for it shal come for my rewarde before thy face. And euery one that is not specked and partie amongst the goates, & blacke amongst the sheepe, let it be compted theft in me.³⁴ And Laban sayde: go to, would God it myght be accordyng to thy saying.³⁵ Therfore he toke out the same day the hee goates that were ryngstraked and of diuers colours, & all the shee goates that were spotted and coloured, and all that had whyte in them, & all the blacke amongst the sheepe, and put them in the kepyng of his sonnes.³⁶ And set three dayes iourney betwixte himselfe and Iacob: and so Iacob kept the rest of Labans sheepe.

³⁷ Iacob toke roddes of greene populer, hasell, and chesse nut trees, and pilled whyte strakes in them, and made the whyte appeare in the roddes.³⁸ And put the roddes which he had pilled, [euen] before the sheepe, in the gutters and watryng throughes when the sheepe came to drynke, that they should conceaue when they came to drynke.³⁹ And the sheepe conceaued before the roddes, & brought foorth lambes ryngstraked, spotted, and partie.⁴⁰ And Iacob did seperate these lambes, and turned the faces of the sheepe whiche were in the flocke of Laban, towarde these ryngstraked, and al maner of blacke: and so put his owne flockes by them selues, and put them not with Labans cattell.⁴¹ And in euery conceauyng tyme of the stronger cattel, Iacob layed the roddes before the eyes of the cattell in the gutters, namely that they myght conceaue before the roddes.⁴² But when the cattell were feeble, he put them not in: and so the feebler were Labans, and the stronger Iacobs.⁴³ And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattell, and mayde seruauntes, and man seruauntes, and camels, and asses.