Dual Panel1When Rachel saw that she wasn’t having any children, she became jealous of her sister. "Give me children, or I’ll die!" she exclaimed to Jacob.
2Jacob flew into a rage. "Am I God?" he asked. "He is the only one able to give you children!"
3Then Rachel told him, "Sleep with my servant, Bilhah, and she will bear children for me."
4So Rachel gave him Bilhah to be his wife, and Jacob slept with her.
5Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son.
6Rachel named him Dan, for she said, "God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son."
7Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son.
8Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, "I have had an intense struggle with my sister, and I am winning!"
9Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t getting pregnant anymore, so she gave her servant, Zilpah, to Jacob to be his wife.
10Soon Zilpah presented him with another son.
11Leah named him Gad, for she said, "How fortunate I am!"
12Then Zilpah produced a second son,
13and Leah named him Asher, for she said, "What joy is mine! The other women will consider me happy indeed!"
14One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought the roots to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah to give some of them to her.
15But Leah angrily replied, "Wasn’t it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son’s mandrake roots, too?" Rachel said, "I will let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for the mandrake roots."
16So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me tonight!" she said. "I have paid for you with some mandrake roots my son has found." So Jacob slept with her.
17And God answered her prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to her fifth son.
18She named him Issachar, for she said, "God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife."
19Then she became pregnant again and had a sixth son.
20She named him Zebulun, for she said, "God has given me good gifts for my husband. Now he will honor me, for I have given him six sons."
21Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by giving her a child.
23She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. "God has removed my shame," she said.
24And she named him Joseph, for she said, "May the LORD give me yet another son."
25Soon after Joseph was born to Rachel, Jacob said to Laban, "I want to go back home.
26Let me take my wives and children, for I have earned them from you, and let me be on my way. You know I have fully paid for them with my service to you."
27"Please don’t leave me," Laban replied, "for I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because you are here.
28How much do I owe you? Whatever it is, I’ll pay it."
29Jacob replied, "You know how faithfully I’ve served you through these many years, and how your flocks and herds have grown.
30You had little indeed before I came, and your wealth has increased enormously. The LORD has blessed you from everything I do! But now, what about me? When should I provide for my own family?"
31"What wages do you want?" Laban asked again. Jacob replied, "Don’t give me anything at all. Just do one thing, and I’ll go back to work for you.
32Let me go out among your flocks today and remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the dark–colored sheep. Give them to me as my wages.
33This will make it easy for you to see whether or not I have been honest. If you find in my flock any white sheep or goats that are not speckled, you will know that I have stolen them from you."
34"All right," Laban replied. "It will be as you have said."
35But that very day Laban went out and removed all the male goats that were speckled and spotted, the females that were speckled and spotted with any white patches, and all the dark–colored sheep. He placed them in the care of his sons,
36and they took them three days’ distance from where Jacob was. Meanwhile, Jacob stayed and cared for Laban’s flock.
37Now Jacob took fresh shoots from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of the bark to make white streaks on them.
38Then he set up these peeled branches beside the watering troughs so Laban’s flocks would see them as they came to drink, for that was when they mated.
39So when the flocks mated in front of the white–streaked branches, all of their offspring were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
40Jacob added them to his own flock, thus separating the lambs from Laban’s flock. Then at mating time, he turned the flocks toward the streaked and dark–colored rams in Laban’s flock. This is how he built his flock from Laban’s.
41Whenever the stronger females were ready to mate, Jacob set up the peeled branches in front of them.
42But he didn’t do this with the weaker ones, so the weaker lambs belonged to Laban, and the stronger ones were Jacob’s.
43As a result, Jacob’s flocks increased rapidly, and he became very wealthy, with many servants, camels, and donkeys.