Read the Bible

¹ And Rachel saw she had borne no children unto Jacob, so Rachel became envious of her sister, - and said unto Jacob, Come! give me children, or else, I die.² Then kindled the anger of Jacob with Rachel, - and he said, Am I, in the place of God, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?³ And she said, Lo! my handmaid, Bilhah. Go in unto her, - that she may hear upon my knees, so that, I also, may be builded up by her!⁴ And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid, to wife, - and Jacob went in unto her;⁵ and Bilhah conceived, and bare unto Jacob a son;⁶ and Rachel said God hath vindicated me. Moreover also he hath hearkened unto my voice, and hath given me a son. For this cause, called she his name Dan.⁷ And Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid conceived again, and bare a second son to Jacob.⁸ Then said Rachel With wrestlings of God, have I wrestled with my sister Yea I have prevailed. So she called his name, Naphtali.⁹ Then saw Leah, that she had left off bearing, - so she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob to wife.¹⁰ And Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bare to Jacob a son:¹¹ and Leah said, Victory hath come! So she called his name Gad.¹² And Zilpah, Leah's handmaid bare a second son to Jacob;¹³ and Leah said, For my happiness, surely happy have daughters pronounced me. So she called his name, Asher.

¹⁴ Then went Reuben, in the days of the wheat harvest, and found mandrakes, in the field, and brought them in unto Leah his mother, and Rachel said unto Leah, Pray give me, stone of the mandrakes of thy son¹⁵ And she said to her, Is it, a small thing, that thou hast taken away my husband? And wouldst thou take away, even the mandrakes of my son? Then said Rachel, Therefore, shall he lie with thee to-night, for the mandrakes of thy son.¹⁶ And Jacob came in from the field, in the evening, so Leah went out to meet him and said: Unto me, shall thou come in, for I have hired, thee, even with the mandrakes of my son. And he lay with her that night,¹⁷ And God hearkened unto Leah, - and she conceived and bare to Jacob a fifth son.¹⁸ Then said Leah. God hath given my hire, in that I gave my handmaid to my husband. So she called his name, Issachar.¹⁹ And Leah conceived again and bare a sixth son to Jacob.²⁰ Then said Leah, God hath dowered me even me with a hand-some dowry, Now! will my husband dwell with me, for I have borne him six sons. So she called his name, Zebulon.²¹ And afterwards she bare a daughter, - so she called her name, Dinah.²² Then God remembered Rachel, - and God hearkened unto her, and granted her to bear.²³ So she conceived and bare a son, - and said, God hath taken away my reproach;²⁴ So she called his name Joseph, saying, Yahweh is adding unto me another son.

²⁵ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Let me go that I may take my journey, unto my place, and to my land.²⁶ Come, give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee and let me take my journey, - for, thou, knowest my service wherewith I have served thee.²⁷ And Laban said unto him, If, I pray thee, I have found favour in thine eyes, …I have divined that Yahweh hath blessed me for thy sake.²⁸ And he said, - Come, fix thy wages for me, that I may give it!²⁹ And he said unto him, Thou, knowest how I have served thee, - and how thy cattle have fared, with me.³⁰ For it was, little I that thou hadst - before I came and then it brake forth into multitude, and Yahweh blessed thee at my every step. Now, therefore, when am, I, also to do something for my own house?³¹ And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said: Thou shall give me, nothing at all, If thou wilt do for me this thing, I will return, I will shepherd thy flock I will keep it:³² Let me pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence every young one that is speckled and spotted and every young one that is dark-coloured among the young sheep, and spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall he my wages.³³ And my righteousness shall answer for me on a future day, when thou shall come in respecting my hire that is before thee, Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark-coloured among the young sheep, stolen, shall it be accounted, if found with me.³⁴ Then said Laban, Lo! would it might he according to thy word!³⁵ So he removed, on that day, the he-goats that were striped and spotted and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and every dark-coloured one among the young sheep, - and delivered then into the hand of his sons;³⁶ then put he a journey of three days between himself and Jacob, - but, Jacob himself, continued tending the flocks of Laban that were left.

³⁷ So then Jacob took him rods of young storax, and hazel and maple, - and peeled in them white stripes, laying bare the white which was on the rods.³⁸ And he set the reds which he had peeled, in the channels in the troughs of water, - where the flocks came in to drink straight before the flocks, and the females of the flock used to be in heat when they came in to drink;³⁹ and the males of the flock were in heat before the rods, - so the flocks brought forth ring-straked, speckled, and spotted.⁴⁰ The rams also, did Jacob separate, and then set the faces of the flocks towards the ring-straked and all the dark-coloured, among the flocks of Laban, - and he put his own droves by themselves, and put them not with the flocks of Laban.⁴¹ So it came to pass whensoever the stronger of the flocks were in heat, that Jacob set the rods before the eyes of the flocks in the channels, - that the females might be in heat among the rods;⁴² but, when the flocks were late in bearing, he did not set them, - and so the late-born were Laban's, out the strong ones Jacob's.⁴³ Thus did the man break forth, exceedingly, - thus came he to have flocks in abundance, and maid-servants, and men-servants and camels and asses.