Old/New Testament
Jacob and Laban
29 Jacob continued on his journey. He came to the land where the people from the east live. 2 He saw a well in a field. Three groups of sheep lay near it. Shepherds took water from the well to give to their sheep. There was a large stone that covered the top of the well. 3 The shepherds waited until all the sheep were there together. Then they removed the stone from the top of the well. They gave their sheep water to drink, and then they put the stone back on the top of the well.
4 Jacob asked the shepherds, ‘My brothers, where are you from?’ The shepherds replied, ‘We are from Haran.’ 5 Jacob said, ‘Do you know Laban? He is Nahor's grandson.’ The shepherds replied, ‘Yes, we know him.’ 6 Jacob asked them, ‘Is he in good health?’ They replied, ‘Yes, he is. Look. Here comes his daughter now, with their sheep. Her name is Rachel.’ 7 Jacob said to them, ‘The sun is still high in the sky. It is not yet the right time to bring all the sheep together. So give them some water now. Then they can go back to the fields and eat more grass.’ 8 The shepherds said, ‘We cannot do that. We have to wait until all the sheep are here together. Then we can remove the big stone from the well and we can give water to the sheep.’
9 When Jacob was speaking to the shepherds, Rachel arrived there. She brought her father's sheep with her. She was taking care of them.
10 Jacob saw Rachel. She was the daughter of his uncle Laban. Jacob saw that she had Laban's sheep with her. So Jacob went to the well and he removed the big stone. Then he gave water to Laban's sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel. He began to weep loudly.[a]
12 Jacob told Rachel that he was a relative of her father, Laban. He told her that he was Rebekah's son. So Rachel ran home to tell her father.
13 When Laban heard what Rachel said, he went quickly to meet Jacob, his sister's son. He put his arms round Jacob and he kissed him. Laban brought Jacob to his home. Jacob told Laban all his news. 14 Then Laban said, ‘Yes, you really are my own relative.’ So Jacob stayed with Laban for a month.
15 Then Laban said to Jacob, ‘You should not work for me for nothing because you are my relative. Tell me what I should pay you.’ 16 Laban had two daughters. The name of the older daughter was Leah. The name of the younger daughter was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes. But Rachel's face and her body were beautiful. 18 Jacob loved Rachel. He said to Laban, ‘I will work for you for seven years. In return, I want to marry your younger daughter, Rachel.’ 19 Laban said, ‘It is better for you to marry her than another man. Stay here with me.’
20 Jacob worked for seven years to have Rachel as his wife. But the years passed very quickly because Jacob loved Rachel very much. Seven years seemed like only a few days to Jacob.
Jacob marries Leah and Rachel
21 After seven years, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Give me my wife. My time to work for you is finished and I want to marry her.’ 22 Laban called all the people in that place to come together. He prepared a big meal for them to eat. 23 When evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and he gave her to Jacob. Jacob slept that night with her as his wife. 24 Laban gave his female servant to Leah to be her servant. Her name was Zilpah.
25 When morning came, Jacob saw that he had slept with Leah! He said to Laban, ‘You have done a very bad thing to me! I worked for you to get Rachel as my wife. Why have you deceived me?’ 26 Laban replied, ‘In our land, we do not give the younger daughter to a man first. We let the older daughter marry first. 27 So finish this week of Leah's marriage. Then we will give you Rachel to marry too. But you must work for another seven years.’[b]
28 So Jacob did what Laban said. He finished the marriage week with Leah. Then Laban gave Rachel to Jacob to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his female servant Bilhah to Rachel to become her servant. 30 Jacob also slept with Rachel. He loved Rachel more than he loved Leah. He worked for Laban for seven more years.
31 The Lord saw that Jacob did not love Leah. So he let her become pregnant. But Rachel did not give birth to any children. 32 Leah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. She called him Reuben. She said, ‘It is because the Lord has seen how sad I am. My husband will love me now because I have given birth to a son.’
33 Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son. She said, ‘The Lord has given me another son because he knows that I am not loved.’ She called this son Simeon.
34 Leah became pregnant again. Later, she gave birth to another son. She said, ‘Now I have given my husband three sons, so he will want to stay with me.’ She called this son Levi.
35 Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son. She said, ‘This time I will praise the Lord.’ She called this son Judah. Then she stopped giving birth to children.
Jacob's family
30 Rachel now knew that she could not give birth to any children for Jacob. So she became jealous of her sister. Rachel said to Jacob, ‘Please give me children. If not, I will die.’[c] 2 Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said, ‘Am I God? God has stopped you from giving birth to children!’ 3 Rachel said, ‘Take my servant Bilhah and have sex with her. Then she can have children on my behalf. Through her, I can have a family.’[d]
4 So Rachel gave her servant Bilhah to Jacob to become his wife. 5 Bilhah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Jacob. 6 Rachel said, ‘God has shown that I am right. He has listened to me and he has given a son to me.’ Because of this, she called the boy Dan. 7 Rachel's servant Bilhah became pregnant again. She gave birth to another son for Jacob. 8 Rachel said, ‘I have fought with my sister and I have won.’ She called this son Naphtali.
9 Leah saw that she had stopped having children. So she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. 10 Zilpah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son for Jacob. 11 Leah said, ‘This is very good.’ She called the boy Gad. 12 Leah's servant Zilpah gave Jacob another son. 13 Leah said, ‘I am very happy! Women will call me happy.’ So she called this boy Asher.
14 It was the time for the harvest of wheat. Reuben went out and he found some mandrake plants in a field. He took them to his mother, Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give me some of the mandrakes that your son gave to you.’[e] 15 But Leah said to Rachel, ‘You took my husband from me. That was bad enough! Now you want to take my son's mandrakes too!’ Rachel said, ‘OK. If you give me some of your son's mandrakes, Jacob can sleep with you tonight.’
16 In the evening, Jacob came in from the fields. Leah went out to meet him. She said, ‘You must sleep with me tonight. I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes.’ So Jacob slept with Leah that night. 17 God listened to Leah and she became pregnant again. She gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. 18 Leah said, ‘God has helped me because I gave my servant to Jacob as a wife.’ She called her son Issachar.
19 Leah became pregnant again and she gave Jacob a sixth son. 20 Leah said, ‘God has given me this valuable gift. Now my husband will respect me because I have given him six sons.’ She called this son Zebulun.
21 After some time, Leah became pregnant again. She gave birth to a daughter. She called her daughter Dinah.
22 Then God decided to help Rachel. He listened to her and he let her become pregnant. 23 She became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. Rachel said, ‘I am not ashamed any longer, because God has given me a son.’ 24 Rachel called her son Joseph. She said, ‘I pray that the Lord will give me another son.’
Jacob's sheep
25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob spoke to Laban. He said, ‘Let me go away now. I want to go home to my own land. 26 Let me take my wives and my children with me. I have worked for you so that I could have them. You must let me leave, because you know how much I have worked for you.’
27 Laban said to Jacob, ‘If you are happy with me then please stay here. I know that the Lord has blessed me because you are here with me. I have used magic to know that.’ 28 Laban also said to Jacob, ‘Tell me how much I should pay you for your work. I will pay whatever you want.’
29 Jacob replied, ‘You know how much I have worked for you. You know that you have many more animals now, because I have taken care of them. 30 Before I came, you had only a few sheep and goats. Now you have many more valuable things. Wherever I have worked for you, the Lord has blessed you. But now I want to work to help my own family. I must do that soon.’
31 Laban asked, ‘What must I give to you?’ Jacob replied, ‘You do not need to give me anything. But just do one thing for me. Then I will still take care of your animals. I will make sure that nothing bad happens to them. 32 Do this: Let me go among all your animals today. Let me remove any animal that has a mark on it or that has more than one colour on its skin. I will also take any black lambs. That is what you will give me for my work. 33 In the future, this will show that I am honest. You can check on my animals whenever you want to. I will only have sheep or goats that have marks on their skin, or black lambs. If I have any other animals, you may call me a robber.’ 34 Laban said, ‘I agree to this. It will be as you have said.’
35 On that same day, Laban went to his animals. He quickly removed all the goats that had marks, both male and female goats. He also removed all the black lambs. He gave these animals to his sons to take care of them.[f] 36 He sent those animals a long way away. It would take Jacob three days to reach them. While this was happening, Jacob was taking care of Laban's other animals.
37 Jacob took branches that he had cut from trees. He took them from poplar trees, almond trees and plane trees. He cut white lines on the branches. He stripped off the outside part of the wood to show white lines. 38 Then he put the branches in the place where there were big bowls of water for the animals to drink. They were in front of the animals when they came to drink. The animals could see the branches when it was the right time for them to have sex together. 39 When they had sex in front of the branches, they gave birth to babies that had skin with marks. 40 Jacob kept these lambs separate from Laban's animals. He took the rest of Laban's female animals to join with the animals that had marks or were black. In that way he got more animals that would belong to him. He kept them separate from Laban's animals.
41 Jacob waited until the stronger female animals were ready to have sex. Then he put the special branches in front of them, near the big bowls of water. Then these animals would see the branches when they had sex together. 42 But if the female animals were weak, he did not put the branches in front of them when they had sex. As a result, the weak animals would belong to Laban, but Jacob would keep the strong animals.
43 In this way, Jacob became very rich. Many sheep and goats belonged to him. He also had female servants and male servants, as well as camels and donkeys.
Jesus helps a man who cannot walk
9 Then Jesus got back into the boat. He sailed across to the other side of the lake again. He went to Capernaum, the town where he was living.
2 Some men came to see Jesus there. They carried with them a man who could not walk or move his legs. He was lying on a mat. Jesus knew that they believed in him. He said to the man who could not walk, ‘Do not be afraid, my friend. I forgive you for the wrong things that you have done.’
3 Then some teachers of God's Law said to themselves: ‘This man is speaking as if he is God. That is not right.’
4 Jesus knew what the teachers were thinking. So he said to them, ‘You should not think these bad things in your minds. 5 I said to this man, “I forgive you for the wrong things that you have done.” Instead, I could have said to him, “Stand up and walk.” Which one is easier for me to say? 6 But I want you to know this. I, the Son of Man, have authority on earth.[a] I can forgive people for the wrong things that they have done.’ Then he said to the man who could not walk, ‘Stand up. Pick up your mat and go home.’ 7 So then the man stood up and he went home. 8 The crowds of people saw what had happened. They were very surprised and afraid. They saw that God had given so much authority to men. So they praised God and they said, ‘God is great!’
Jesus asks Matthew to come with him
9 Jesus went away from that place. While he walked, he saw a man called Matthew. Matthew's job was to take taxes from people. He was sitting in his office. Jesus said to him, ‘Come with me and be my disciple.’ So Matthew stood up and he went with Jesus.
10 Later, Jesus went to eat a meal in Matthew's house. Many bad people and men who took taxes also came to the house.[b] They came to eat there with Jesus and his disciples.
11 Some Pharisees saw what was happening. They said to Jesus' disciples, ‘Your teacher is eating a meal with these bad people. That is not right. They are people who do not obey God, and some of them take taxes from people.’
12 Jesus heard what the Pharisees were saying. He said to them, ‘People who are well do not need a doctor. It is people who are ill that need a doctor. 13 Go and study what it says in the Bible. God says there, “I want people to be kind to each other. I do not want them only to offer sacrifices to me.” Some people think that they always obey God. I did not come to help people like that. Some people know that they have done wrong things. I am asking those people to come to me for help.’
14 Then the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus. They said to him, ‘We often decide to fast for a time. The disciples of the Pharisees also do that. Why do your disciples never do that?’[c]
15 Jesus answered them: ‘When a man marries, his friends cannot be sad. They cannot refuse to eat food while he is with them. But there will be a time when people will take the man away from his friends. At that time his friends will choose to fast.’[d]
16 Then Jesus said, ‘Nobody uses a piece of new cloth to mend an old coat. If he does, the new cloth will cause the old cloth to tear again. It will make a bigger hole than before.
17 Nobody pours new wine into old wineskins.[e] If he does that, the new wine will tear the old wineskins. He will lose the wine and the wineskins will spoil. Instead, you must put new wine into new wineskins. Then there will be nothing to spoil the wine or the wineskins.’[f]
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