Leah’s Children

³¹ Later, the Lord noticed that Leah was being neglected,^[a] so he made her fertile, while Rachel remained childless. ³² Leah conceived, bore a son, and named him Reuben,^[b] because she was saying, “The Lord had looked on my torture, so now my husband will love me.”

³³ Later, she conceived again, bore a son, and declared, “Because the Lord heard that I’m neglected, he gave me this one, too.” So she named him Simeon.^[c]

³⁴ Later, she conceived again and said, “This time my husband will become attached to me, now that I’ve borne him three sons.” So he named him Levi.^[d]

³⁵ Then she conceived yet again, bore a son, and said, “This time I’ll praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.^[e]

Then she stopped bearing children.

Rachel’s Children by Bilhah

30 Rachel noticed that she was not bearing children for Jacob, so because she envied her sister Leah, she told Jacob, “If you don’t give me sons, I’m going to die!”

² That made Jacob angry with Rachel, so he asked her, “Can I take God’s place, who has not allowed you to conceive?”^[f]

³ Rachel^[g] responded, “Here’s my handmaid Bilhah. Go have sex with her. She can bear children^[h] on my knees so I can have children through her.”

⁴ So Rachel^[i] gave Jacob^[j] her woman servant Bilhah to be his wife, and Jacob had sex with her. ⁵ Bilhah conceived and bore a son for Jacob. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me! He has heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore, she named him Dan.^[k]

⁷ Rachel’s servant conceived again and bore a second son for Jacob, ⁸ so Rachel said, “I’ve been through a mighty struggle with my sister and won.” She named him Naphtali.^[l]

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing children, she took her woman servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ Leah’s servant Zilpah bore a son to Jacob, ¹¹ and Leah exclaimed, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad.^[m]

¹² Later, Leah’s servant Zilpah bore a second son for Jacob. ¹³ She said, “How happy I am, because women will call me happy!” So she named him Asher.^[n]

Jacob and the Mandrakes

¹⁴ Some time later, during the wheat harvest season, Reuben went out and found some mandrakes^[o] in the field and brought them back for his mother Leah. Then Rachel^[p] told Leah, “Please give me your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ In response, Leah asked her, “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes!”

But Rachel replied, “Very well, let’s let Jacob sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ When Jacob came in from the field that evening, Leah went to meet him and told him, “You’re having sex with me tonight. I traded my son’s mandrakes for you!” So he slept with her that night.

¹⁷ God heard what Leah had said, so she conceived and bore a fifth son for Jacob. ¹⁸ Then Leah said, “God has paid me for giving my servant to my husband as his wife.” So she named him Issachar.^[q]

¹⁹ Later, Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son for Jacob. ²⁰ Then Leah said, “God has given me a good gift. This time my husband will exalt me, because I’ve borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.^[r]

²¹ After that, Leah conceived, bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

Rachel’s Son Joseph is Born

²² Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb, ²³ so she conceived, bore a son, and remarked, “God has removed my shame.” ²⁴ Because she had been asking, “May God give me another son,” she named him Joseph.^[s]

List of Those who Went to Egypt^(A)

⁸ Here’s a list of the names of Israel’s sons, that is, of Jacob and his sons who moved to Egypt: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn; ⁹ Reuben’s sons Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; ¹⁰ Simeon’s sons Jemuel,^[a] Jamin, Ohad, Jachin,^[b] Zohar,^[c] and Shaul, who was the son of a Canaanite woman; ¹¹ Levi’s sons Gershon,^[d] Kohath, and Merari; ¹² and Judah’s sons Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. (Technically,^[e] Er and Onan had died in the land of Canaan.) Perez’s sons were Hezron and Hamul. ¹³ Also included were Issachar’s sons Tola, Puvvah,^[f] Job,^[g] and Shimron; ¹⁴ along with Zebulun’s sons Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. ¹⁵ These were all sons from Leah, whom she bore for Jacob in Paddan-aram,^[h] along with his daughter Dinah. He had 33 sons and daughters.

¹⁶ Also included were Gad’s sons Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli; ¹⁷ Asher’s sons Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah, and their sister Serah. Beriah’s sons Heber and Malchiel were also included.^{[i] 18} These were all sons from Zilpah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Leah. She bore these sixteen children for Jacob.

¹⁹ Jacob’s wife Rachel’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin.

²⁰ Joseph’s sons born in the land of Egypt were Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On, bore for him. ²¹ Benjamin’s sons included Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. ²² These were all the sons of Rachel, who were born for Jacob—fourteen in all.

²³ Also included were Dan’s son Hushim; ²⁴ Naphtali’s sons Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. ²⁵ These were sons of Bilhah, whom Laban had given to his daughter Rachel. She bore these children for Jacob—seven in all.

The Ancestry of David

¹⁸ This is the genealogy of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron fathered Ram, and Ram fathered Amminadab. ²⁰ Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. ²¹ Salmon fathered Boaz, and Boaz fathered Obed. ²² Then Obed fathered Jesse, who fathered David.

The Ancestry of Jesus^(A)

² Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers. ³ Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, ⁴ Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon. ⁵ Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse fathered King David.

David fathered Solomon by the wife of Uriah,

John the Baptist Prepares the Way for Jesus^(A)

3 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Caesar Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, ² and Annas and Caiaphas high priests, a message from God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. ³ John^[a] went throughout the entire Jordan region, proclaiming a baptism about repentance for the forgiveness of sins, ⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

⁷ John would say to the crowds that were coming out to be baptized by him, “You children of serpents! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit that is consistent with repentance! Don’t begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones! ⁹ The ax already lies against the roots of the trees. So every tree not producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a fire.”

¹⁰ The crowds kept asking him, “What, then, should we do?”

¹¹ He answered them, “The person who has two coats must share with the one who doesn’t have any, and the person who has food must do the same.”

¹² Even some tax collectors came to be baptized. They asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?”

¹³ He told them, “Stop collecting more money than the amount you are told to collect.”

¹⁴ Even some soldiers were asking him, “And what should we do?”

He told them, “Never extort money from anyone by threats or blackmail, and be satisfied with your pay.”

¹⁵ Now the people were filled with expectation, and all of them were wondering if John was perhaps the Messiah.^{[e] 16} John replied to all of them, “I’m baptizing you with^[f] water, but one is coming who is more powerful than I, and I’m not worthy to untie his sandal straps. It is he who will baptize you with^[g] the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷ His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean up his threshing floor. He’ll gather the grain into his barn, but he’ll burn the chaff with inextinguishable fire.”

¹⁸ With many other exhortations John^[h] continued to proclaim the good news to the people. ¹⁹ Now Herod the tetrarch had been rebuked by John^[i] because he had married^[j] his brother’s wife Herodias and because of all of the other evil things Herod had done. ²⁰ Added to all this, Herod^[k] locked John up in prison.

Jesus is Baptized^(B)

²¹ When all the people had been baptized, Jesus, too, was baptized. While he was praying, heaven opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended on him, appearing in the form of a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, saying,^[l] “You are my Son, whom I love. I am pleased with you!”^[m]

The Ancestry of Jesus^(C)

²³ Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry.^[n] He was (as legally calculated)^[o] the son of Joseph, the son of Heli, ²⁴ the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, ²⁵ the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, ²⁶ the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, ²⁷ the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,^[p] the son of Neri, ²⁸ the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, ²⁹ the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, ³⁰ the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, ³¹ the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, ³² the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon,^[q] the son of Nahshon, ³³ the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Arni, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah,