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Genesis Chapter 30 (NIV)

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undefined When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
undefined Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”
undefined Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.”
undefined So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her,
undefined and she became pregnant and bore him a son.
undefined Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.
undefined Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
undefined Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.
undefined When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
undefined Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.
undefined Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.
undefined Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.
undefined Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
undefined During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
undefined But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?”“Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
undefined So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
undefined God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
undefined Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.
undefined Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
undefined Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.
undefined Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
undefined Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.
undefined She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”
undefined She named him Joseph, and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”
undefined Jacob’s Flocks IncreaseAfter Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.
undefined Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”
undefined But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
undefined He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
undefined Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.
undefined The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”
undefined “What shall I give you?” he asked.“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:
undefined Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They will be my wages.
undefined And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”
undefined “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”
undefined That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.
undefined Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.
undefined Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
undefined Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
undefined they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
undefined Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.
undefined Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,
undefined but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
undefined In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.

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