Jacob Meets Rachel

29 Then Jacob ^[a]set out on his journey, and went to the land of ^(A)the ^[b]people of the east. ² He looked, and ^[c]saw ^(B)a well in the field, and behold, three flocks of sheep were lying there beside it, because they watered the flocks from that well. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was large. ³ When all the flocks were gathered there, they would roll the stone from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back in its place on the mouth of the well.

⁴ Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” And they said, “We are from ^(C)Haran.” ⁵ So he said to them, “Do you know Laban the ^(D)son of Nahor?” And they said, “We know him.” ⁶ And he said to them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “It is well, and here is his daughter ^(E)Rachel coming with the sheep.” ⁷ Then he said, “Look, it is still high day; it is not time for the livestock to be gathered. Water the sheep, and go, pasture them.” ⁸ But they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered, and they roll the stone from the mouth of the well; then we water the sheep.”

⁹ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess. ¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban. ¹¹ Then Jacob ^(F)kissed Rachel, and raised his voice and wept. ¹² Jacob told Rachel that he was a ^(G)relative of her father and that he was Rebekah’s son, and ^(H)she ran and told her father.

¹³ So when ^(I)Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and ^(J)embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Then he told Laban all these things. ¹⁴ And Laban said to him, “You certainly are ^(K)my bone and my flesh.” And he stayed with him a month.

¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my relative, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall ^(L)your wages be?” ¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. ¹⁷ And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was ^(M)beautiful in figure and appearance. ¹⁸ Now Jacob ^(N)loved Rachel, so he said, “^(O)I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” ¹⁹ Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” ²⁰ So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like only a few days ^(P)because of his love for her.

Laban’s Treachery

²¹ Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my ^[d]time is completed, that I may ^(Q)have relations with her.” ²² So Laban gathered all the people of the place and held a feast. ²³ Now in the evening he took his daughter Leah and brought her to him; and Jacob had relations with her. ²⁴ Laban also gave his female slave Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a slave. ²⁵ So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “^(R)What is this that you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you ^(S)deceived me?” ²⁶ But Laban said, “It is not ^[e]the practice in our place to ^[f]marry off the younger before the firstborn. ²⁷ Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which ^(T)you shall serve with me, for another seven years.” ²⁸ Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. ²⁹ Laban also gave his female slave Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave. ³⁰ So Jacob had relations with Rachel also, and indeed ^(U)he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with ^[g]Laban for ^(V)another seven years.

³¹ Now the Lord saw that Leah was ^[h]unloved, and He opened her womb, but Rachel was unable to have children. ³² Leah conceived and gave birth to a son, and named him ^[i]Reuben, for she said, “Because the Lord has ^[j](W)seen my affliction; surely now my husband will love me.” ³³ Then she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “^(X)Because the Lord has ^[k]heard that I am ^[l]unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” So she named him Simeon. ³⁴ And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become ^[m]attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore he was named ^(Y)Levi. ³⁵ And she conceived again and gave birth to a son, and said, “This time I will ^[n]praise the Lord.” Therefore she named him ^[o](Z)Judah. Then she stopped having children.

The Sons of Jacob

30 Now when Rachel saw that ^(AA)she had not borne Jacob any children, ^[p]she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “^(AB)Give me children, or else I am going to die.” ² Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has ^(AC)withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” ³ Then she said, “^(AD)Here is my female slave Bilhah: have relations with her that she may ^(AE)give birth ^[q]on my knees, so that ^[r](AF)by her I too may obtain a child.” ⁴ So ^(AG)she gave him her slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob had relations with her. ⁵ Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has ^[s](AH)vindicated me, and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son.” Therefore she named him ^[t]Dan. ⁷ And Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ So Rachel said, “With ^[u]mighty wrestling I have ^[v]wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed.” And she named him Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, “^[w]How fortunate!” So she named him ^[x]Gad. ¹² And Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³ Then Leah said, “^[y]Happy am I! For women ^(AI)will call me happy.” So she named him ^[z]Asher.

¹⁴ Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found ^(AJ)mandrake fruits in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁵ But she said to her, “Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Therefore he may sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶ When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must have relations with me, for I have indeed hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night. ¹⁷ God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Then Leah said, “God has given me my ^[aa]reward, because I gave my slave to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. ¹⁹ And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰ Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; finally my husband ^[ab]will acknowledge me as his wife, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. ²¹ Afterward she gave birth to a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²² Then ^(AK)God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ^(AL)opened her womb. ²³ So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, “God has ^(AM)taken away my disgrace.” ²⁴ And she named him Joseph, saying, “^(AN)May the Lord ^[ac]give me another son.”

Jacob Prospers

²⁵ Now it came about, when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “^(AO)Send me away, so that I may go to my own place and to my own country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children ^(AP)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have ^[ad]rendered you.” ²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If ^[ae]it pleases you at all, stay with me; I have determined by divination ^(AQ)that the Lord has blessed me on your account.” ²⁸ He ^[af]continued, “^(AR)Name me your wages, and I will give them.” ²⁹ But Jacob said to him, “^(AS)You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have ^[ag]fared with me. ³⁰ For you had little before ^[ah]I came, and it has ^[ai]increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you ^[aj]wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” ³¹ So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: ³² let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every ^(AT)speckled or spotted sheep and every black sheep among the lambs, and the spotted or speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages. ³³ So my ^[ak]honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my ^[al]wages. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” ³⁴ Laban said, “^[am]Good, let it be according to your word.” ³⁵ So he removed on that day the striped or spotted male goats, and all the speckled or spotted female goats, every one with white on it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the ^[an]care of his sons. ³⁶ And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Then Jacob ^[ao]took fresh rods of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was ^[ap]in the rods. ³⁸ He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs, that is, in the watering channels where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink. ³⁹ So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks delivered striped, speckled, and spotted offspring. ⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and ^[aq]made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹ Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the drinking troughs, so that they would mate by the rods; ⁴² but when the flock was sickly, he did not put them in; so the sickly were Laban’s, and the stronger were Jacob’s. ⁴³ So ^(AU)the man ^[ar]became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

God Knows and Cares

12 Under these circumstances, after ^[a]so many thousands of ^[b]people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first of all, “^(A)Beware of the ^[c]leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. ^2 (B)But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. ³ Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have ^[d]whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on ^(C)the housetops.

⁴ “Now I say to you, ^(D)My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. ⁵ But I will warn you whom to fear: ^(E)fear the One who, after He has killed someone, has the power to throw that person into ^[e](F)hell; yes, I tell you, fear ^[f]Him! ⁶ Are ^(G)five sparrows not sold for two ^[g]assaria? And yet not one of them has gone unnoticed in the sight of God. ^7 (H)But even the hairs of your head are all counted. ^[h]Do not fear; you are more valuable than a great number of sparrows.

⁸ “Now I say to you, everyone who ^(I)confesses Me before people, the Son of Man will also confess him before the angels of God; ⁹ but ^(J)the one who denies Me before people will be denied ^(K)before the angels of God. ^10 (L)And everyone who ^[i]speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him. ¹¹ Now when they bring you before ^(M)the synagogues and the officials and the authorities, do not ^(N)worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; ¹² for ^(O)the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Greed Denounced

¹³ Now someone ^[j]in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ But He said to him, “^[k](P)You there—who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over the two of you?” ¹⁵ But He said to them, “^(Q)Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one is affluent does his life consist of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. ¹⁷ And he began thinking to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will store all my grain and my goods there. ¹⁹ And I will say to ^[l]myself, “^(R)You have many goods stored up for many years to come; relax, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘^(S)You fool! This very night ^[m](T)your soul is demanded of you; and ^(U)as for all that you have prepared, who will own it now?’ ²¹ Such is the one who ^(V)stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich in relation to God.”

²² And He said to His disciples, “^(W)For this reason I tell you, ^[n]do not worry about your ^[o]life, as to what you are to eat; nor for your body, as to what you are to wear. ²³ For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. ²⁴ Consider the ^(X)ravens, that they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor ^(Y)barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! ²⁵ And which of you by worrying can add a ^[p](Z)day to his ^[q]life’s span? ²⁶ Therefore if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about the other things? ²⁷ Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither labor nor ^[r]spin; but I tell you, not even ^(AA)Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. ²⁸ Now if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? ^(AB)You of little faith! ²⁹ And do not ^[s]seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not ^(AC)keep worrying. ³⁰ For ^[t]all these things are what the nations of the world ^[u]eagerly seek; and your Father knows that you need these things. ³¹ But ^[v]seek His kingdom, and ^(AD)these things will be ^[w]provided to you. ^32 [x](AE)Do not be afraid, ^(AF)little flock, because ^(AG)your Father has chosen to give you the kingdom.

³³ “^(AH)Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts that do not wear out, ^(AI)an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor does a moth destroy. ³⁴ For ^(AJ)where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Be in Readiness

³⁵ “^[y](AK)Be prepared, and keep your ^(AL)lamps lit. ³⁶ You are also to be like people who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door for him when he comes and knocks. ³⁷ Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find ^(AM)on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that ^(AN)he will ^[z]prepare himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and he will come up and serve them. ^38 (AO)Whether he comes in the ^[aa]second watch, or even in the ^[ab]third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹ “^(AP)But ^[ac]be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be ^(AQ)broken into. ^40 (AR)You too, be ready; because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not think He will.”

⁴¹ Peter said, “Lord, are You telling this parable to us, or ^(AS)to everyone else as well?” ⁴² And ^(AT)the Lord said, “^(AU)Who then is the faithful and sensible ^(AV)steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? ⁴³ Blessed is that ^(AW)slave whom his ^[ad]master finds so doing when he comes. ⁴⁴ Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. ⁴⁵ But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will take a long time to come,’ and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; ⁴⁶ then the master of that slave will come on a day that he does not expect, and at an hour that he does not know, and will ^[ae]cut him in two, and assign ^[af]him a place with the unbelievers. ⁴⁷ And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accordance with his will, will ^(AX)receive many blows, ⁴⁸ but the one who did not ^(AY)know it, and committed acts deserving of ^[ag]a beating, will receive only a few blows. ^(AZ)From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Christ Divides People

⁴⁹ “I ^[ah]have come to cast fire upon the earth; and ^[ai]how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ But I have a ^(BA)baptism ^[aj]to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! ^51 (BB)Do you think that I came to provide peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; ⁵² for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. ⁵³ They will be divided, ^(BC)father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

⁵⁴ And He was also saying to the crowds, “^(BD)Whenever you see a cloud rising ^[ak]in the west, you immediately say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. ⁵⁵ And whenever you feel a ^[al]south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a ^(BE)hot day,’ and it turns out that way. ⁵⁶ You hypocrites! ^(BF)You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but how is it that you do not know how to analyze this present time?

⁵⁷ “And ^(BG)why do you not even judge by yourselves what is right? ⁵⁸ For ^(BH)when you are going with your accuser to appear before the magistrate, on the way, make an effort to ^[am]settle with him, so that he does not drag you before the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison. ⁵⁹ I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid up ^[an]the very last ^[ao](BI)lepton.”