30 When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she envied her sister. “Give me sons, or I will die!” ^(A) she said to Jacob.

² Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Am I in the place of God? He has withheld offspring^[a] from you!”

³ Then she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah. Go sleep with her, and she’ll bear children for me^[b](B) so that through her I too can build a family.” ⁴ So Rachel gave her slave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. ⁵ Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. ⁶ Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; yes, he has heard me and given me a son,” so she named him Dan.^[c]

⁷ Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸ Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God,^[d] I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali.^[e]

⁹ When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰ Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹ Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” ^[f] and she named him Gad.^[g]

¹² When Leah’s slave Zilpah bore Jacob a second son, ¹³ Leah said, “I am happy that the women call me happy,”^(C) so she named him Asher.^[h]

¹⁴ Reuben went out during the wheat harvest and found some mandrakes in the field.^(D) When he brought them to his mother Leah, Rachel asked, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

¹⁵ But Leah replied to her, “Isn’t it enough that you have taken my husband? Now you also want to take my son’s mandrakes?”

“Well then,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

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

¹⁷ God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸ Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my slave to my husband,” and she named him Issachar.^[i]

¹⁹ Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰ “God has given me a good gift,” Leah said. “This time my husband will honor me because I have borne six sons for him,” and she named him Zebulun.^{[j] 21} Later, Leah bore a daughter and named her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb.^{(E) 23} She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”^{(F) 24} She named him Joseph^[k] and said, “May the Lord add another son to me.”^(G)

Jacob’s Flocks Multiply

²⁵ After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go.^(H) You know how hard I have worked for you.”

²⁷ But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸ Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”^(I)

²⁹ So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your herds have fared with me.^{(J) 30} For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”

³¹ Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock. ³² Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-colored sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages. ³³ In the future when you come to check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me. If I have any female goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not black, they will be considered stolen.”

³⁴ “Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

³⁵ That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them. ³⁶ He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷ Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. ³⁸ He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep—in the water channels where the sheep came to drink. And the sheep bred when they came to drink. ³⁹ The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young.^{(K) 40} Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked sheep and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.

⁴¹ Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. ⁴² As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. ⁴³ And the man became very rich.^[l] He had many flocks, female and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.^(L)

Jacob Separates from Laban

31 Now Jacob heard what Laban’s sons were saying: “Jacob has taken all that was our father’s and has built this wealth from what belonged to our father.” ² And Jacob saw from Laban’s face that his attitude toward him was not the same as before.

³ The Lord said to him, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.”^(M)

⁴ Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the field where his flocks were. ⁵ He said to them, “I can see from your father’s face that his attitude toward me is not the same as before, but the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ You know that with all my strength I have served your father^{(N) 7} and that he has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God has not let him harm me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The spotted sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born spotted. If he said, ‘The streaked sheep will be your wages,’ then all the sheep were born streaked.^{(O) 9} God has taken away your father’s herds and given them to me.

¹⁰ “When the flocks were breeding, I saw in a dream that the streaked, spotted, and speckled males were mating with the females. ¹¹ In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² And he said, ‘Look up and see: all the males that are mating with the flocks are streaked, spotted, and speckled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.^{(P) 13} I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me.^(Q) Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land.’”

¹⁴ Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we have any portion or inheritance in our father’s family? ¹⁵ Are we not regarded by him as outsiders? For he has sold us^(R) and has certainly spent our purchase price. ¹⁶ In fact, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has said to you.”

¹⁷ So Jacob got up and put his children and wives on the camels. ¹⁸ He took all the livestock and possessions he had acquired in Paddan-aram, and he drove his herds to go to the land of Canaan, to his father Isaac. ¹⁹ When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.^{(S) 20} And Jacob deceived^[m] Laban the Aramean, not telling him that he was fleeing. ²¹ He fled with all his possessions, crossed the Euphrates, and headed for^[n] the hill country of Gilead.

Laban Overtakes Jacob

²² On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled. ²³ So he took his relatives with him, pursued Jacob for seven days, and overtook him in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁴ But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night. “Watch yourself!” God warned him. “Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”^(T)

²⁵ When Laban overtook Jacob, Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives also pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead. ²⁶ Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have deceived me and taken my daughters away like prisoners of war! ²⁷ Why did you secretly flee from me, deceive me, and not tell me? I would have sent you away with joy and singing, with tambourines and lyres, ²⁸ but you didn’t even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters. You have acted foolishly. ²⁹ I could do you great harm, but last night the God of your father said to me, ‘Watch yourself! Don’t say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.’ ³⁰ Now you have gone off because you long for your father’s family—but why have you stolen my gods?” ^(U)

³¹ Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force. ³² If you find your gods with anyone here, he will not live!^(V) Before our relatives, point out anything that is yours and take it.” Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the idols.

³³ So Laban went into Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two concubines,^[o] but he found nothing. When he left Leah’s tent, he went into Rachel’s tent. ³⁴ Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of the camel, and sat on them. Laban searched the whole tent but found nothing.

³⁵ She said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence;^(W) I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.

Jacob’s Covenant with Laban

³⁶ Then Jacob became incensed and brought charges against Laban. “What is my crime?” he said to Laban. “What is my sin, that you have pursued me? ³⁷ You’ve searched all my possessions! Have you found anything of yours?^[p] Put it here before my relatives and yours, and let them decide between the two of us. ³⁸ I’ve been with you these twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock. ³⁹ I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or by night. ⁴⁰ There I was—the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. ⁴¹ For twenty years in your household I served you—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks^(X)—and you have changed my wages ten times! ⁴² If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work,^[q] and he issued his verdict last night.”

⁴³ Then Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters; the children, my children; and the flocks, my flocks! Everything you see is mine! But what can I do today for these daughters of mine or for the children they have borne? ⁴⁴ Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I.^(Y) Let it be a witness between the two of us.”

⁴⁵ So Jacob picked out a stone and set it up as a marker.^{(Z) 46} Then Jacob said to his relatives, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a mound, then ate there by the mound. ⁴⁷ Laban named the mound Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob named it Galeed.^[r]

⁴⁸ Then Laban said, “This mound is a witness between you and me today.” Therefore the place was called Galeed ⁴⁹ and also Mizpah,^[s](AA) for he said, “May the Lord watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. ⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, understand that God will be a witness between you and me.”^{(AB) 51} Laban also said to Jacob, “Look at this mound and the marker I have set up between you and me. ⁵² This mound is a witness and the marker is a witness that I will not pass beyond this mound to you, and you will not pass beyond this mound and this marker to do me harm. ⁵³ The God of Abraham, and the gods^(AC) of Nahor—the gods of their father^[t]—will judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. ⁵⁴ Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. So they ate a meal and spent the night on the mountain. ⁵⁵ Laban got up early in the morning, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.

Psalm 11

Refuge in the Lord

For the choir director. Of David.

The Parable of the Vineyard Owner

12 He^(A) began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard,^(B) put a fence around it, dug out a pit for a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went away. ² At harvest time he sent^(C) a servant^(D) to the farmers to collect some of the fruit^(E) of the vineyard from them. ³ But they took him, beat^(F) him, and sent him away empty-handed.^{(G) 4} Again he sent another servant to them, and they^[a] hit him on the head and treated him shamefully.^{[b] 5} Then he sent another, and they killed that one. He also sent many others; some they beat, and others they killed. ⁶ He still had one to send, a beloved^(H) son. Finally^(I) he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹ What then will the owner^[c](J) of the vineyard do? He will come and kill the farmers and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this Scripture:^(K)

¹² They were looking for a way to arrest him but feared the crowd because they knew he had spoken this parable against them. So they left him and went away.

God and Caesar

¹³ Then^(O) they sent some of the Pharisees^(P) and the Herodians^(Q) to Jesus to trap him in his words.^{(R) 14} When they came, they said to him, “Teacher, we know you are truthful and don’t care what anyone thinks, nor do you show partiality^(S) but teach the way of God truthfully. Is it lawful to pay taxes^(T) to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?”

¹⁵ But knowing their hypocrisy,^(U) he said to them, “Why are you testing^(V) me? Bring me a denarius^[e](W) to look at.” ¹⁶ They brought a coin. “Whose image^(X) and inscription^(Y) is this?” he asked them.

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

¹⁷ Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”^(Z) And they were utterly amazed^(AA) at him.

The Sadducees and the Resurrection

¹⁸ Sadducees,^(AB) who say there is no resurrection,^(AC) came to him and questioned him: ¹⁹ “Teacher,^(AD) Moses^(AE) wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife behind but no child,^(AF) that man should take the wife^(AG) and raise up offspring for his brother.^{[f](AH) 20} There were seven brothers. The first married a woman, and dying, left no offspring. ²¹ The second also took her, and he died, leaving no offspring. And the third likewise. ²² None of the seven^[g] left offspring. Last of all, the woman died too. ²³ In the resurrection, when they rise,^[h] whose wife will she be, since the seven had married her?”

²⁴ Jesus spoke to them, “Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures^(AI) or the power^(AJ) of God?^{(AK) 25} For when they rise^(AL) from the dead,^(AM) they neither marry nor are given in marriage^(AN) but are like angels^(AO) in heaven. ²⁶ And as for the dead being raised—haven’t you read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the burning bush, how God said to him: I^(AP) am the God of Abraham^(AQ) and the God of Isaac^(AR) and the God of Jacob?^{[i](AS) 27} He is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are badly mistaken.”

The Primary Commands

²⁸ One^(AT) of the scribes^(AU) approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which command is the most important of all?”

²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important^[j] is Listen, Israel! The Lord^(AV) our God, the Lord^(AW) is one.^{[k] 30} Love^(AX) the Lord your God^(AY) with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind,^(AZ) and with all your strength.^{[l][m](BA) 31} The second is, Love your neighbor^(BB) as yourself.^[n](BC) There is no other command^(BD) greater than these.”

³² Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, teacher. You have correctly said that he is one, and there is no one^(BE) else except him.^{(BF) 33} And to love^(BG) him with all your heart, with all your understanding,^[o] and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is far more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.”^(BH)

³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”^(BI) And no one dared^(BJ) to question him any longer.

The Question about the Messiah

³⁵ While^(BK) Jesus was teaching in the temple, he asked,^(BL) “How can the scribes^(BM) say that the Messiah^(BN) is the son of David?^{(BO) 36} David^(BP) himself says by the Holy Spirit: ^(BQ)

³⁷ David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can he be his son?” And the large crowd was listening to him with delight.

Warning against the Scribes

³⁸ He^(BU) also said in his teaching, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes^(BV) and who want greetings in the marketplaces,^{(BW) 39} the best seats^(BX) in the synagogues,^(BY) and the places of honor^(BZ) at banquets.^{(CA) 40} They devour^(CB) widows’^(CC) houses and say long prayers^(CD) just for show. These will receive harsher judgment.”

The Widow’s Gift

⁴¹ Sitting^(CE) across from the temple treasury,^(CF) he watched how the crowd dropped money into the treasury. Many rich^(CG) people were putting in large sums. ⁴² Then a poor^(CH) widow came and dropped in two tiny coins worth very little. ⁴³ Summoning his disciples,^(CI) he said to them, “Truly I tell you,^(CJ) this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.^{(CK) 44} For they all gave out of their surplus,^(CL) but she out of her poverty^(CM) has put in everything she had^(CN) —all she had to live on.”^(CO)