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The BibleGenesis 30

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Genesis 30

1
English · Berean Standard Bible

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing any children for Jacob, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Jacob.

2
English · Berean Standard Bible

Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”

3
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”

4
English · Berean Standard Bible

So Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife, and he slept with her,

5
English · Berean Standard Bible

and Bilhah conceived and bore him a son.

6
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Dan.

7
English · Berean Standard Bible

And Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

8
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Rachel said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him Naphtali.

9
English · Berean Standard Bible

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

10
English · Berean Standard Bible

And Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

11
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad.

12
English · Berean Standard Bible

When Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son,

13
English · Berean Standard Bible

Leah said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

14
English · Berean Standard Bible

Now during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Rachel begged Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15
English · Berean Standard Bible

But Leah replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Rachel, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

16
English · Berean Standard Bible

When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

17
English · Berean Standard Bible

And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.

18
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

19
English · Berean Standard Bible

Again Leah conceived and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

20
English · Berean Standard Bible

“God has given me a good gift,” she said. “This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she named him Zebulun.

21
English · Berean Standard Bible

After that, Leah gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,

23
English · Berean Standard Bible

and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said.

24
English · Berean Standard Bible

She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

25
English · Berean Standard Bible

Now after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.

26
English · Berean Standard Bible

Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”

27
English · Berean Standard Bible

But Laban replied, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

28
English · Berean Standard Bible

And he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

29
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Jacob answered, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock have thrived under my care.

30
English · Berean Standard Bible

Indeed, you had very little before my arrival, but now your wealth has increased many times over. The LORD has blessed you wherever I set foot. But now, when may I also provide for my own household?”

31
English · Berean Standard Bible

“What can I give you?” Laban asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Jacob replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.

32
English · Berean Standard Bible

Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.

33
English · Berean Standard Bible

So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”

34
English · Berean Standard Bible

“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

35
English · Berean Standard Bible

That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.

36
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37
English · Berean Standard Bible

Jacob, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

38
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then he set the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks coming in to drink. So when the flocks were in heat and came to drink,

39
English · Berean Standard Bible

they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

40
English · Berean Standard Bible

Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

41
English · Berean Standard Bible

Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.

42
English · Berean Standard Bible

But if the animals were weak, he did not set out the branches. So the weaker animals went to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob.

43
English · Berean Standard Bible

Thus Jacob became exceedingly prosperous. He owned large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

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Hebrew text: Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain). Original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb (CC BY 4.0). · Source ↗

Hebrew text: Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain), from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible. Original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Changes: lemma and morphology markup removed; morpheme separators removed; qere readings shown in [brackets] after the ketiv, which is shown in (parentheses); petucha/setuma marks omitted; verses renumbered to English versification (Psalm titles moved to headings).

The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB. Dedicated to the public domain. · Source ↗

The Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version), standard text of 1769; electronic text courtesy of eBible.org and the CrossWire Bible Society. Public domain outside the United Kingdom. In the UK, rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown under Letters Patent, administered by Cambridge University Press. · Source ↗

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