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30 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”
2 Then Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 And she said, “Behold my maid, Bilhah. Go into her; and she shall bear upon my knees. And I, also, shall have children by her.”
4 Then she gave him Bilhah, her maid, to wife; and Jacob went into her.
5 So Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
6 Then Rachel said, “God has given sentence on my side, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.” Therefore, she called his name, Dan.
7 And Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8 Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and have gotten the upper hand.” And she called his name, Naphtali.
9 And when Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
10 And Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bore Jacob a son.
11 Then Leah said, “A company comes.” And she called his name, Gad.
12 Again Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bore Jacob another son.
13 Then Leah said, “Ah, blessed am I. For the daughters will bless me.” And she called his name, Asher.
14 Now, Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest and found mandrakes 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 answered her, “Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son’s mandrakes also?” Then Rachel said, “Therefore, he shall sleep with you tonight, for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening. And Leah went out to meet him, and said, “Come into me, for I have bought and paid for you with my son’s mandrakes.” And he slept with her that night.
17 And God heard Leah, and she conceived, and bore to Jacob a fifth son.
18 Then Leah said, “God has given me my reward, because I gave my maid to my husband.” And she called his name, Issachar.
19 After, Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
20 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him six sons.” And she called his name, Zebulun.
21 After that, she bore a daughter; and she called her name, Dinah.
22 And God remembered Rachel; and God heard her and opened her womb.
23 So she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my rebuke.”
24 And she called his name, Joseph, saying, “The LORD will give me yet another son.”
25 And as soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away so that I may go to my place and to my country.
26 “Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. For you know what service I have done you.”
27 To whom Laban answered, “If I have now found favor in your sight. I have perceived that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.”
28 Also, he said, “Name your wages and I will give it to you.”
29 But he said to him, “You know what service I have done you, and in what state your cattle has been under me.
30 “For the little that you had before I came has increased into a multitude. And the LORD has blessed you by my coming. But now, when shall I work for my own house also?”
31 Then he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob answered, “You shall give me nothing at all. If you will do this thing for me, I will return, feed, and keep your sheep.
32 “I will pass through all your flocks today, separate from them all the sheep with little spots and great spots and all black lambs among the sheep, and the great spotted, and little spotted among the goats. And that shall be my wages.
33 “So shall my righteousness answer for me hereafter, when my reward comes before your face. Every one that has no little or great spots among the goats, or is black among the sheep, the same shall be considered stolen if with me.
34 Then Laban said, “Go to! Would that it might be according to your saying.”
35 Therefore, the same day, he took out the male goats that were parti-colored and with great spots, and all the female goats with little and great spots, and all that had white in them, and all the black among the sheep, and put them in the keeping of his sons.
36 And he set three days journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob kept the rest of Laban’s sheep.
37 Then Jacob took rods of green poplar, and of hazel, and of the chestnut tree, and peeled white strips in them, and made the white appear in the rods.
38 Then he put the rods which he had peeled in the gutters and watering troughs where the sheep came to drink, so they could conceive (for they were in heat, when they came to drink).
39 And the sheep were in heat before the rods; and they brought forth young of parti-color and with small and great spots.
40 And Jacob parted these lambs and turned the faces of the flock toward the parti-colored and all manner of black among the sheep of Laban. So, he put his own flock by themselves, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.
41 And in every ramming time of the stronger sheep, Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the sheep in the gutters, so that they might conceive before the rods.
42 But when the sheep were feeble, he did not put them in. And so, the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
43 So the man increased exceedingly, and had many flocks, and maid servants, and men servants, and camels, and donkeys.
31 Now he heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s, and he has gotten all this honor from our father’s goods.”
2 Also Jacob beheld the face of Laban, that it was not towards him as in times past.
3 And the LORD said to Jacob, “Return into the land of your fathers, and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”
4 Therefore, Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flock.
5 Then he said to them, “I see your father’s face, that it is not towards me as it used to be. But the God of my father has been with me.
6 “And you know that I have served your father with all my might.
7 “But your father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times. Yet God did not allow him to hurt me.
8 “If he said thus: ‘The spotted shall be your wages’, then all the sheep bore spotted. And if he said thus: ‘The parti-colored shall be your reward’, then all the sheep bore parti-colored.
9 “Thus has God taken away your father’s substance and given it to me.
10 “For in breeding time, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats lept upon the female goats that were parti-colored with little and great spots spotted.
11 “And the Angel of God said to me in a dream, ‘Jacob.’ And I answered, ‘Lo, I am here.’
12 “And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes, now, and see all the male goats leaping upon the female goats that are parti-colored, spotted with little and great spots. For I have seen all that Laban does to you.
13 ‘I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar, where you vowed a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this country and return to the land where you were born.’”
14 Then Rachel and Leah answered, and said to him, “Do we have any more portion and inheritance in our father’s house?
15 “Does he not count us as strangers? For he has sold us and has eaten up and consumed our money.
16 “Therefore, all the riches which God has taken from our father is ours and our children’s. Now, then, whatever God has said to you, do it.”
17 Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon camels.
18 And he carried away all his flocks, and all his substance which he had gotten (his riches which he had gotten in Padan Aram) to go to Isaac, his father, to the land of Canaan.
19 When Laban was gone to sheer his sheep, then Rachel stole her father’s idols.
20 Thus, Jacob stole away the heart of Laban the Aramite. For he did not tell him that he fled.
21 So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up and passed the river and set his face toward Mount Gilead.
22 And three days later, Laban was told that Jacob fled.
23 Then he took his brothers with him and followed after him seven days’ journey and overtook him at Mount Gilead.
24 And God came to Laban the Aramite in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.”
25 Then Laban overtook Jacob; and Jacob had pitched his tent on the Mount. And Laban, with his brothers, pitched upon Mount Gilead.
26 Then Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done? You have even stolen away my heart and carried away my daughters, as though they had been taken captives with the sword.
27 “Why did you flee so secretly and steal away from me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you forth with mirth and with songs, with timbrel and with harp?
28 “But you have not allowed me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now, you have done foolishly in doing so.
29 “I am able to do you evil. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak neither good nor bad to Jacob.’
30 “Now, you went your way because you greatly longed after your father’s house. Yet why have you stolen my gods?”
31 Then Jacob answered, and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid and thought that you would have taken your daughters from me.
32 “With whomever you find your gods, let him not live. Search what I have in the presence of my brothers and take what is yours, (but Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.)
33 Then Laban went into Jacob’s tent, and into Leah’s tent, and into the two maid’s tents, but did not find them. So, he went out of Leah’s tent and entered into Rachel’s tent
34 (now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the camel’s straw and sat down upon them). And Laban searched the entire tent but did not find them.
35 Then she said to her father, “My Lord, do not be angry but I cannot rise up before you. For the custom of women is upon me.” So, he searched but did not find the idols.
36 Then Jacob was angry and argued with Laban. Jacob also answered and said to Laban, “What have I trespassed? What have I offended, that you have pursued after me?
37 “Seeing you have searched all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Put it here before my brothers and your brothers, so that they may judge between us both.
38 “This past twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your goats have not miscarried their young; and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
39 “Whatever was torn by beasts I did not bring to you but made it good myself. Of my hand did you require it, were it stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 “I was consumed with heat in the day, and with frost in the night, and my sleep departed from my eyes.
41 “Thus have I been in your house twenty years. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your sheep; and you have changed my wages ten times.
42 “Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with me, surely you would have sent me away now empty. But God beheld my tribulation, and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”
43 Then Laban answered, and said to Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, and these sons are my sons, and these sheep are my sheep, and all that you see is mine. And what can I do this day to these, my daughters, or to their sons which they have borne?
44 “Now, therefore, come let us make a covenant, you and I, which may be a witness between me and you.”
45 Then Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar:
46 And Jacob said to his brothers, “Gather stones.” Who brought stones and made a heap; and they ate there upon the heap.
47 And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha; and Jacob called it Galeed.
48 For Laban said, “This heap is witness between me and you this day.” Therefore, he called the name of it Galeed.
49 He also called it Mizpah, because he said, “The LORD keep watch between me and him, when we shall be departed one from another.
50 “If you shall afflict my daughters, or shall take wives beside my daughters, though no man with us, behold, God is witness between me and you.”
51 Moreover, Laban said to Jacob, “Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set between me and you.
52 “This heap shall be witness, and the pillar shall be witness, so that I will not come over this heap to you, and so that you shall not pass over this heap and this pillar to me for evil.
53 “The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father be judge between us.” And Jacob swore by the fear of his father, Isaac.
54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice upon the Mount, and called his brothers to eat bread; and they ate bread and stayed on the Mount all night.
55 And early in the morning, Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them; and Laban, departing, returned to his place.
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