The Children of Jacob

³¹ When the Lord ^(A)saw that Leah was ^[a]unloved, He ^(B)opened her womb; but Rachel was barren. ³² So Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name ^[b]Reuben; for she said, “The Lord has surely ^(C)looked on my affliction. Now therefore, my husband will love me.” ³³ Then she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Because the Lord has heard that I am ^[c]unloved, He has therefore given me this son also.” And she called his name ^[d]Simeon. ³⁴ She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” Therefore his name was called ^[e]Levi. ³⁵ And she conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord.” Therefore she called his name ^(D)Judah.^[f] Then she stopped bearing.

Jacob’s Children

30 Now when Rachel saw that ^(A)she bore Jacob no children, Rachel ^(B)envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, ^(C)or else I die!”

² And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, ^(D)“Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

³ So she said, “Here is ^(E)my maid Bilhah; go in to her, ^(F)and she will bear a child on my knees, ^(G)that I also may ^[a]have children by her.” ⁴ Then she gave him Bilhah her maid ^(H)as wife, and Jacob went in to her. ⁵ And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶ Then Rachel said, “God has ^(I)judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name ^[b]Dan. ⁷ And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ Then Rachel said, “With ^[c]great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name ^[d]Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and ^(J)gave her to Jacob as wife. ¹⁰ And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, ^[e]“A troop comes!” So she called his name ^[f]Gad. ¹² And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. ¹³ Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters ^(K)will call me blessed.” So she called his name ^[g]Asher.

¹⁴ Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, ^(L)“Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ But she said to her, ^(M)“Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?”

And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁶ When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he lay with her that night.

¹⁷ And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name ^[h]Issachar. ¹⁹ Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰ And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name ^[i]Zebulun. ²¹ Afterward she bore a ^(N)daughter, and called her name ^[j]Dinah.

²² Then God ^(O)remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and ^(P)opened her womb. ²³ And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away ^(Q)my reproach.” ²⁴ So she called his name ^[k]Joseph, and said, ^(R)“The Lord shall add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

²⁵ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ^(S)“Send me away, that I may go to ^(T)my own place and to my country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children ^(U)for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷ And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for ^(V)I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸ Then he said, ^(W)“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹ So Jacob said to him, ^(X)“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. ³⁰ For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you ^[l]since my coming. And now, when shall I also ^(Y)provide for my own house?”

³¹ So he said, “What shall I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: ³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and ^(Z)these shall be my wages. ³³ So my ^(AA)righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴ And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” ³⁵ So he removed that day the male goats that were ^(AB)speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. ³⁶ Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Now ^(AC)Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. ³⁸ And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. ³⁹ So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰ Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹ And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. ⁴² But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³ Thus the man ^(AD)became exceedingly prosperous, and ^(AE)had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Solomon Dedicates the Temple^(A)

7 When ^(B)Solomon had finished praying, ^(C)fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and ^(D)the glory of the Lord filled the ^[a]temple. ^2 (E)And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. ³ When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying:

^4 (H)Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ^6 (I)And the priests attended to their services; the Levites also with instruments of the music of the Lord, which King David had made to praise the Lord, saying, “For His mercy endures forever,” whenever David offered praise by their ^[b]ministry. ^(J)The priests sounded trumpets opposite them, while all Israel stood.

⁷ Furthermore ^(K)Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the Lord; for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat.

^8 (L)At that time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly ^(M)from the entrance of Hamath to ^(N)the^[c] Brook of Egypt. ⁹ And on the eighth day they held a ^(O)sacred assembly, for they observed the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. ^10 (P)On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the Lord had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel. ¹¹ Thus ^(Q)Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.

God’s Second Appearance to Solomon^(R)

¹² Then the Lord ^(S)appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, ^(T)and have chosen this ^(U)place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ^13 (V)When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if My people who are ^(W)called by My name will ^(X)humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, ^(Y)then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now ^(Z)My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now ^(AA)I have chosen and ^[d]sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and ^[e]My eyes and ^[f]My heart will be there perpetually. ^17 (AB)As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ^(AC)‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

^19 (AD)“But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ^20 (AE)then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have ^[g]sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a ^(AF)byword among all peoples.

²¹ “And as for ^(AG)this ^[h]house, which ^[i]is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be ^(AH)astonished and say, ^(AI)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”