² and Sarai said to Abram, “You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.^(A)

⁴ If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out alone.

¹⁰ Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.^(A)

¹⁷ And to the man^[a] he said,

¹¹ Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children^[a] in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem;^(A)

²² Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.^(A)

⁹ When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.^{(A) 10} Then Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

² Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”^{(A) 3} Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her.”^{(B) 4} So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.^(C)

²¹ Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.^(A)