Genesis 30:25-31:16

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

²⁵ When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own place and country.

²⁶ Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know the work which I have done for you.

²⁷ And Laban said to him, If I have found favor in your sight, I pray you [do not go]; for I have learned by experience and from the omens in divination that the Lord has favored me with blessings on your account.

²⁸ He said, State your salary and I will give it.

²⁹ Jacob answered him, You know how I have served you, and how your possessions, your cattle and sheep and goats, have fared with me.

³⁰ For you had little before I came, and it has increased and multiplied abundantly; and the Lord has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own house also?

³¹ [Laban] said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything, if you will do this one thing for me [of which I am about to tell you], and I will again feed and take care of your flock.

³² Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted animal and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

³³ So later when the matter of my wages is brought before you, my fair dealing will be evident and answer for me. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the sheep, if found with me, shall be counted as stolen.

³⁴ And Laban said, Good; let it be done as you say.

³⁵ But that same day [Laban] removed the he-goats that were streaked and spotted and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every black lamb, and put them in charge of his sons.

³⁶ And he set [a distance of] three days’ journey between himself and Jacob; and Jacob was then left in care of the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷ But Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white in the rods.

³⁸ Then he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred and conceived when they came to drink,

³⁹ The flocks bred and conceived in sight of the rods and brought forth lambs and kids streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰ Jacob separated the lambs, and [as he had done with the peeled rods] he also set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark in the [new] flock of Laban; and he put his own droves by themselves and did not let them breed with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹ And whenever the stronger animals were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the watering troughs before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed and conceive among the rods.

⁴² But when the sheep and goats were feeble, he omitted putting the rods there; so the feebler animals were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³ Thus the man increased and became exceedingly rich, and had many sheep and goats, and maidservants, menservants, camels, and donkeys.

31 Jacob heard Laban’s sons complaining, Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s; he has acquired all this wealth and honor from what belonged to our father.

² And Jacob noticed that Laban looked at him less favorably than before.

³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your people, and I will be with you.

⁴ So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

⁵ And he said to them, I see how your father looks at me, that he is not [friendly] toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

⁶ You know that I have served your father with all my might and power.

⁷ But your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

⁸ If he said, The speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, The streaked shall be your hire, then all the flock bore streaked.

⁹ Thus God has taken away the flocks of your father and given them to me.

¹⁰ And I had a ^[a]dream at the time the flock conceived. I looked up and saw that the rams which mated with the she-goats were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

¹¹ And the ^[b]Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob. And I said, Here am I.

¹² And He said, Look up and see, all the rams which mate with the flock are streaked, speckled, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you vowed a vow to Me. Now arise, get out from this land and return to your native land.

¹⁴ And Rachel and Leah answered him, Is there any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

¹⁵ Are we not counted by him as strangers? For he sold us and has also quite devoured our money [the price you paid for us].

¹⁶ For all the riches which God has taken from our father are ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.