²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons;

¹⁹ The children of Jacob’s wife Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.^(A)

The Birth of Benjamin and the Death of Rachel

¹⁶ Then they journeyed from Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. ¹⁷ When she was in her hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for now you have another son.”^{(A) 18} As her soul was departing, for she was dying, she named him Ben-oni,^[a] but his father called him Benjamin.^[b]

²² Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.^{(A) 23} She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach,”^{(B) 24} and she named him Joseph,^[a] saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”^(C)

Jacob Prospers at Laban’s Expense

²⁵ When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.^(D)

²⁸ Jacob did so and completed her week; then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

¹⁸ Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”^{(A) 19} Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to any other man; stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife that I may go in to her, for my time is completed.”^(B)