1Rachel had not borne Jacob any children. As a result, she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob: »Give me children, or I will die.« 2Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said: »I cannot take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children.« 3She said: »Here is my maid Bilhah. Sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. This way I can become a mother through her.« 4Then Rachel let Jacob marry Bilhah. Jacob slept with Bilhah. 5They had a son. 6Rachel named him Dan, because she said: »God has answered my prayers. He has vindicated me and given me a son.« 7Bilhah and Jacob had a second son. 8Rachel said: »I have struggled hard with my sister, and I have won!« So she named the boy Naphtali. 9When Leah realized she could not have any more children, she let Jacob marry her servant Zilpah. 10They had a son. 11Leah said: »How fortunate. She called him Gad.« 12Leah’s slave Zilpah gave birth to her second son for Jacob. 13Leah said: »I am happy, for women will call me blessed. So she named him Asher.« 14During the wheat harvest Reuben went out into the fields. He found some mandrake plants. He brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah: »Please, give me some of your son’s mandrake plants.« 15Leah replied: »Is it not enough that you took my husband? Are you also going to take my son’s mandrake plants?« Rachel responded: »Very well, Jacob can go to bed with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrake plants.« 16Jacob came in from the fields that evening. Leah went out to meet him. »You are to sleep with me,« she said. »You are my reward for my son’s mandrake plants.« So he went to bed with her that night. 17God answered Leah’s prayer. She became pregnant and gave birth to her fifth son for Jacob. 18Leah said: »God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband.« So she named him Issachar. 19She became pregnant again and gave birth to her sixth son for Jacob. 20Leah said: »God has presented me with a wonderful gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have given him six sons.« So she named him Zebulun. 21Later she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. 22Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb. 23So she conceived and gave birth to a son. She said: »God has taken away my reproach.« 24She named him Joseph. She said: »May Jehovah give me another son.« 25When Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: »Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country. 26»Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you. Let me depart. For you know how much service I have done for you.« 27But Laban said: »If now it pleases you, stay with me. I have observed that Jehovah has blessed me on your account.« 28He continued: »Name your wages, and I will pay.« 29Jacob responded: »You know how much work I have done for you and what has happened to your livestock under my care. 30»The little that you had before I came has grown to a large amount. Jehovah has blessed you wherever I have been. When may I do something for my own family?« 31Laban asked: »What should I give you?« Jacob answered: »Do not give me anything. Instead, do something for me. Then I will go back to taking care of and watching your flocks again. 32»Let me go through all of your flocks today and take every speckled and spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted and speckled goat. They will be my wages. 33»My honesty will speak for itself whenever you come to check on my wages. Any goat I have that is not speckled or spotted or any lamb that is not black will be considered stolen.« 34Laban answered: »I agree; we will do as you have said.« 35Laban took out the striped and spotted male goats, all the speckled and spotted female goats every one with white on it, and every black lamb. He had his sons take charge of them that same day. 36They moved away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban’s flocks. 37Jacob took green branches of poplar storax, almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them. 38He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink. 39So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted. 40Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban’s flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban’s. 41When the strongest of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods. 42When the flock was feeble, he did not put them in. That way the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. 43He became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.