¹⁸ While He was talking this way to them, behold, a ruler entered and, kneeling down, worshiped Him, saying, My daughter has just ^[a]now died; but come and lay Your hand on her, and she will come to life.

¹⁹ And Jesus got up and accompanied him, with His disciples.

²⁰ And behold, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment;^(A)

²¹ For she kept saying to herself, If I only touch His garment, I shall be restored to health.

²² Jesus turned around and, seeing her, He said, Take courage, daughter! Your faith has made you well. And at once the woman was restored to health.

²³ And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making an uproar and din,

²⁴ He said, Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed and jeered at Him.

²⁵ But when the crowd had been ordered to go outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

²⁶ And the news about this spread through all that district.

²⁷ As Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed Him, shouting loudly, Have pity and mercy on us, Son of David!

²⁸ When He reached the house and went in, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, Do you believe that I am able to do this? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.

²⁹ Then He touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith and trust and reliance [on the power invested in Me] be it done to you;

³⁰ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus earnestly and sternly charged them, See that you let no one know about this.

³¹ But they went off and blazed and spread His fame abroad throughout that whole district.

³² And while they were going away, behold, a dumb man under the power of a demon was brought to Jesus.

³³ And when the demon was driven out, the dumb man spoke; and the crowds were stunned with bewildered wonder, saying, Never before has anything like this been seen in Israel.

³⁴ But the Pharisees said, He drives out demons through and with the help of the prince of demons.

³⁵ And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity.

³⁶ When He saw the throngs, He was moved with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered (harassed and distressed and dejected and helpless), like sheep without a shepherd.^(B)

³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is indeed plentiful, but the laborers are few.

³⁸ So pray to the Lord of the harvest to ^[b]force out and thrust laborers into His harvest.

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29 Then Jacob went [briskly and cheerfully] on his way [400 miles] and came to the land of the people of the East.

² As he looked, he saw a well in the field; and behold, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well the flocks were watered. The stone on the well’s mouth was a big one,

³ And when all the flocks were gathered there, [the shepherds] would roll the stone from the well’s mouth, water the sheep, and replace the stone on the well’s mouth.

⁴ And Jacob said to them, My brothers, where are you from? And they said, We are from Haran.

⁵ [Jacob] said to them, Do you know Laban the grandson of Nahor? And they said, We know him.

⁶ He said to them, Is it well with him? And they said, He is doing well; and behold, here comes his daughter Rachel with [his] sheep!

⁷ He said, The sun is still high; it is a long time yet before the flocks need be gathered [in their folds]. [Why not] water the sheep and return them to their pasture?

⁸ But they said, We cannot until all the flocks are gathered together; then [the shepherds] roll the stone from the well’s mouth and we water the sheep.

⁹ While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she shepherded them.

¹⁰ When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his uncle, Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth and watered the flock of his uncle Laban.

¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and he wept aloud.

¹² Jacob told Rachel he was her father’s relative, Rebekah’s son; and she ran and told her father.

¹³ When Laban heard of the arrival of Jacob his sister’s son, he ran to meet him, and embraced and kissed him and brought him to his house. And [Jacob] told Laban all these things.

¹⁴ Then Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. And [Jacob] stayed with him a month.

¹⁵ Then Laban said to Jacob, Just because you are my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?

¹⁶ Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel.

¹⁷ Leah’s eyes were weak and dull looking, but Rachel was beautiful and attractive.

¹⁸ And Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, I will work for you for seven years for Rachel your younger daughter.

¹⁹ And Laban said, It is better that I give her to you than to another man. Stay and live with me.

²⁰ And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.

²¹ Finally, Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my time is completed, so that I may take her to me.

²² And Laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast [with drinking].

²³ But when night came, he took Leah his daughter and brought her to [Jacob], who had intercourse with her.

²⁴ And Laban gave Zilpah his maid to his daughter Leah to be her maid.

²⁵ But in the morning [Jacob saw his wife, and] behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Did I not work for you [all those seven years] for Rachel? Why then have you deceived and cheated and thrown me down [like this]?

²⁶ And Laban said, It is not permitted in our country to give the younger [in marriage] before the elder.

²⁷ Finish the [wedding feast] week [for Leah]; then we will give you [Rachel] also, and you shall work for me yet seven more years in return.

²⁸ So Jacob complied and fulfilled [Leah’s] week; then [Laban] gave him Rachel his daughter as his wife.

²⁹ (And Laban gave Bilhah his maid to Rachel his daughter to be her maid.)

³⁰ And Jacob lived with Rachel also as his wife, and he loved Rachel more than Leah and served [Laban] another seven years [for her].

³¹ And when the Lord saw that Leah was despised, He made her able to bear children, but Rachel was barren.

³² And Leah became pregnant and bore a son and named him Reuben [See, a son!]; for she said, Because the Lord has seen my humiliation and affliction; now my husband will love me.

³³ [Leah] became pregnant again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord heard that I am despised, He has given me this son also; and she named him Simeon [God hears].

³⁴ And she became pregnant again and bore a son and said, Now this time will my husband be a companion to me, for I have borne him three sons. Therefore he was named Levi [companion].

³⁵ Again she conceived and bore a son, and she said, Now will I praise the Lord! So she called his name Judah [praise]; then [for a time] she ceased bearing.

30 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister, and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I will die!

² And Jacob became very angry with Rachel and he said, Am I in God’s stead, Who has denied you children?

³ And she said, See here, take my maid Bilhah and have intercourse with her; and [when the baby comes] she shall deliver it upon my knees, that I by her may also have children.

⁴ And she gave him Bilhah her maid as a [secondary] wife, and Jacob had intercourse with her.

⁵ And Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.

⁶ And Rachel said, God has judged and vindicated me, and has heard my plea and has given me a son; so she named him Dan [judged].

⁷ And Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸ And Rachel said, With mighty wrestlings [in prayer to God] I have struggled with my sister and have prevailed; so she named him [this second son Bilhah bore] Naphtali [struggled].

⁹ When Leah saw that she had ceased to bear, she gave Zilpah her maid to Jacob as a [secondary] wife.

¹⁰ And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bore Jacob a son.

¹¹ Then Leah said, Victory and good fortune have come; and she named him Gad [fortune].

¹² Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bore Jacob [her] second son.

¹³ And Leah said, I am happy, for women will call me blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied); and she named him Asher [happy].

¹⁴ Now Reuben went at the time of wheat harvest and found some mandrakes (love apples) in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray you, some of your son’s mandrakes.

¹⁵ But [Leah] answered, Is it not enough that you have taken my husband without your taking away my son’s ^[a]mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Jacob shall sleep with you tonight [in exchange] for your son’s mandrakes.

¹⁶ And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, You must sleep with me [tonight], for I have certainly paid your hire with my son’s mandrakes. So he slept with her that night.

¹⁷ And God heeded Leah’s [prayer], and she conceived and bore Jacob [her] fifth son.

¹⁸ Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maid to my husband; and she called his name Issachar [hired].

¹⁹ And Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob [her] sixth son.

²⁰ Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good marriage gift [for my husband]; now will he dwell with me [and regard me as his wife in reality], because I have borne him six sons; and she named him Zebulun [dwelling].

²¹ Afterwards she bore a daughter and called her Dinah.

²² Then God remembered Rachel and answered her pleading and made it possible for her to have children.

²³ And [now for the first time] she became pregnant and bore a son; and she said, God has taken away my reproach, disgrace, and humiliation.

²⁴ And she called his name Joseph [may he add] and said, May the Lord add to me another son.

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.