Genesis 30
1 When Rachel saw that she
bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob,
"Give me children, or I shall die!"
2 Jacob became very angry
with Rachel and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you
the fruit of the womb?"
3 Then she said, "Here
is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too
may have children through her."
4 So she gave him her maid
Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.
5 And Bilhah conceived and
bore Jacob a son.
6 Then Rachel said,
"God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son";
therefore she named him Dan.
7 Rachel's maid Bilhah
conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.
8 Then Rachel said,
"With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have
prevailed"; so she named him Naphtali.
9 When Leah saw that she had
ceased bearing children, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a
wife.
10 Then Leah's maid Zilpah
bore Jacob a son.
11 And Leah said, "Good
fortune!" so she named him Gad.
12 Leah's maid Zilpah bore
Jacob a second son.
13 And Leah said,
"Happy am I! For the women will call me happy"; so she named him
Asher.
14 In the days of wheat
harvest Reuben went 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 said to her,
"Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take
away my son's mandrakes also?" Rachel said, "Then he may lie with you
tonight for your son's mandrakes."
16 When Jacob came from the
field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and said, "You must come
in to me; for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with
her that night.
17 And God heeded Leah, and
she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18 Leah said, "God has
given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband"; so she named him
Issachar.
19 And Leah conceived again,
and she bore Jacob a sixth son.
20 Then Leah said, "God
has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have
borne him six sons"; so she named him Zebulun.
21 Afterwards she bore a
daughter, and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered
Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.
23 She conceived and bore a
son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach";
24 and she named him Joseph,
saying, "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 home
and country.
26 Give me my wives and my
children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know very well the
service I have given you."
27 But Laban said to him,
"If you will allow me to say so, I have learned by divination that the
Lord has blessed me because of you;
28 name your wages, and I
will give it."
29 Jacob said to him, "You
yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with
me.
30 For you had little before
I came, and it has increased abundantly; and the Lord has blessed you wherever
I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own household also?"
31 He said, "What shall
I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything; if you will
do this for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it:
32 let me pass through all
your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every
black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my
wages.
33 So my honesty will answer
for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is
not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found
with me, shall be counted stolen."
34 Laban said, "Good!
Let it be as you have said."
35 But that day Laban
removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats
that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb
that was black, and put them in charge of his sons;
36 and he set a distance of
three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the
rest of Laban's flock.
37 Then Jacob took fresh
rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing
the white of the rods.
38 He set the rods that he
had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places,
where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to
drink,
39 the flocks bred in front
of the rods, and so the flocks produced young that were striped, speckled, and
spotted.
40 Jacob separated the lambs, and
set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and the completely black animals
in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them
with Laban's flock.
41 Whenever the stronger of
the flock were breeding, Jacob laid the rods in the troughs before the eyes of
the flock, that they might breed among the rods,
42 but for the feebler of
the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban's, and the
stronger Jacob's.
43 Thus the man grew
exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, and male and female slaves, and camels
and donkeys.
Genesis 31
1 Now Jacob heard that the
sons of Laban were saying, "Jacob has taken all that was our father's; he
has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father."
2 And Jacob saw that Laban
did not regard him as favorably as he did before.
3 Then the Lord said to
Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I
will be with you."
4 So Jacob sent and called
Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was,
5 and said to them, "I
see that your father does not regard me as favorably as he did before. But the
God of my father has been with me.
6 You know that I have
served your father with all my strength;
7 yet your father has
cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm
me.
8 If he said, "The
speckled shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore speckled; and if he
said, "The striped shall be your wages,' then all the flock bore
striped.
9 Thus God has taken away
the livestock of your father, and given them to me.
10 During the mating of the
flock I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats that
leaped upon the flock were striped, speckled, and mottled.
11 Then the angel of God
said to me in the dream, "Jacob,' and I said, "Here I am!'
12 And he said, "Look up and
see that all the goats that leap on the flock are striped, speckled, and
mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.
13 I am the God of Bethel,
where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now leave this land at once
and return to the land of your birth.' "
14 Then Rachel and Leah
answered him, "Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our
father's house?
15 Are we not regarded by
him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given
for us.
16 All the property that God
has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, do
whatever God has said to you."
17 So Jacob arose, and set
his children and his wives on camels;
18 and he drove away all his
livestock, all the property that he had gained, the livestock in his possession
that he had acquired in Paddan-aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of
Canaan.
19 Now Laban had gone to shear his
sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.
20 And Jacob deceived Laban
the Aramean, in that he did not tell him that he intended to flee.
21 So he fled with all that
he had; starting out he crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill
country of Gilead.
22 On the third day Laban
was told that Jacob had fled.
23 So he took his kinsfolk
with him and pursued him for seven days until he caught up with him in the hill
country of Gilead.
24 But God came to Laban the
Aramean in a dream by night, and said to him, "Take heed that you say not
a word to Jacob, either good or bad."
25 Laban overtook Jacob. Now
Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his kinsfolk
camped in the hill country of Gilead.
26 Laban said to Jacob, "What
have you done? You have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like
captives of the sword.
27 Why did you flee secretly
and deceive me and not tell me? I would have sent you away with mirth and
songs, with tambourine and lyre.
28 And why did you not
permit me to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell? What you have done is
foolish.
29 It is in my power to do
you harm; but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, "Take
heed that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.'
30 Even though you had to go
because you longed greatly for your father's house, why did you steal my
gods?"
31 Jacob answered Laban,
"Because I was afraid, for I thought that you would take your daughters
from me by force.
32 But anyone with whom you
find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our kinsfolk, point out what
I have that is yours, and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had
stolen the gods.
33 So Laban went into
Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maids, but he
did not find them. And he went out of Leah's tent, and entered Rachel's.
34 Now Rachel had taken the
household gods and put them in the camel's saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt
all about in the tent, but did not find them.
35 And she said to her
father, "Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the
way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the household
gods.
36 Then Jacob became angry,
and upbraided Laban. Jacob said to Laban, "What is my offense? What is my
sin, that you have hotly pursued me?
37 Although you have felt
about through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods?
Set it here before my kinsfolk and your kinsfolk, so that they may decide
between us two.
38 These twenty years I have
been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have
not eaten the rams of your flocks.
39 That which was torn by
wild beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself; of my hand
you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.
40 It was like this with me:
by day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my
eyes.
41 These twenty years I have
been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six
years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.
42 If the God of my father,
the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now
you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my affliction and the labor
of my hands, and rebuked you last night."
43 Then Laban answered and
said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters, the children are my
children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can
I do today about these daughters of mine, or about their children whom they
have borne?
44 Come now, let us make a
covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me."
45 So Jacob took a stone,
and set it up as a pillar.
46 And Jacob said to his
kinsfolk, "Gather stones," and they took stones, and made a heap; and
they ate there by the heap.
47 Laban called it
Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed.
48 Laban said, "This heap is
a witness between you and me today." Therefore he called it Galeed,
49 and the pillar Mizpah,
for he said, "The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one
from the other.
50 If you ill-treat my
daughters, or if you take wives in addition to my daughters, though no one else
is with us, remember that God is witness between you and me."
51 Then Laban said to Jacob,
"See this heap and see the pillar, which I have set between you and
me.
52 This heap is a witness,
and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you, and
you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.
53 May the God of Abraham
and the God of Nahor"—the God of their father—"judge between
us." So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,
54 and Jacob offered a
sacrifice on the height and called his kinsfolk to eat bread; and they ate
bread and tarried all night in the hill country.
55 Early in the morning
Laban rose up, and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them;
then he departed and returned home.
Genesis 32
1 Jacob went on his way and
the angels of God met him;
2 and when Jacob saw them he
said, "This is God's camp!" So he called that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers before him
to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom,
4 instructing them,
"Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob, "I
have lived with Laban as an alien, and stayed until now;
5 and I have oxen, donkeys,
flocks, male and female slaves; and I have sent to tell my lord, in order that
I may find favor in your sight.' "
6 The messengers returned to
Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet
you, and four hundred men are with him."
7 Then Jacob was greatly
afraid and distressed; and he divided the people that were with him, and the
flocks and herds and camels, into two companies,
8 thinking, "If Esau
comes to the one company and destroys it, then the company that is left will
escape."
9 And Jacob said, "O
God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me,
"Return to your country and to your kindred, and I will do you good,'
10 I am not worthy of the
least of all the steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to
your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan; and now I have
become two companies.
11 Deliver me, please, from
the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I am afraid of him; he may
come and kill us all, the mothers with the children.
12 Yet you have said,
"I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the
sea, which cannot be counted because of their number.' "
13 So he spent that night
there, and from what he had with him he took a present for his brother
Esau,
14 two hundred female goats
and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
15 thirty milch camels and
their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male
donkeys.
16 These he delivered into
the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants,
"Pass on ahead of me, and put a space between drove and drove."
17 He instructed the
foremost, "When Esau my brother meets you, and asks you, "To whom do
you belong? Where are you going? And whose are these ahead of you?'
18 then you shall say,
"They belong to your servant Jacob; they are a present sent to my lord
Esau; and moreover he is behind us.' "
19 He likewise instructed
the second and the third and all who followed the droves, "You shall say
the same thing to Esau when you meet him,
20 and you shall say,
"Moreover your servant Jacob is behind us.' " For he thought, "I
may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterwards I shall
see his face; perhaps he will accept me."
21 So the present passed on
ahead of him; and he himself spent that night in the camp.
22 The same night he got up
and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the
ford of the Jabbok.
23 He took them and sent
them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had.
24 Jacob was left alone; and
a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
25 When the man saw that he
did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip
was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.
26 Then he said, "Let
me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you
go, unless you bless me."
27 So he said to him,
"What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."
28 Then the man said,
"You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven
with God and with humans, and have prevailed."
29 Then Jacob asked him,
"Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask
my name?" And there he blessed him.
30 So Jacob called the place
Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is
preserved."
31 The sun rose upon him as
he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.
32 Therefore to this day the
Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he
struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.
