Genesis 30

Birth of Dan and Naphtali Genesis 30:5–8

⁵Verse 5. Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Verse 6. Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son.” Therefore called she his name Dan. ⁷Verse 7. Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Verse 8. Rachel said, “I have wrestled with my sister with mighty wrestlings, and have prevailed.” She named him Naphtali.

Leah's Strategy with Zilpah Genesis 30:9–13

⁹Verse 9. When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her servant, and gave her to Jacob as a wife. ¹⁰Verse 10. Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Verse 11. Leah said, “How fortunate!” She named him Gad. ¹²Verse 12. Zilpah, Leah’s servant, bore Jacob a second son. ¹³Verse 13. Leah said, “Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy.” She named him Asher.

Mandrakes and Rivalry Intensified Genesis 30:14–21

¹⁴Verse 14. Reuben went in the days of 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.” ¹⁵Verse 15. 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, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.” ¹⁶Verse 16. Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, “You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” He lay with her that night.

¹⁷Verse 17. God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Verse 18. Leah said, “God has given me my hire, because I gave my servant to my husband.” She named him Issachar. ¹⁹Verse 19. Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob. ²⁰Verse 20. Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons.” She named him Zebulun. ²¹Verse 21. Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

Rachel Finally Conceives Joseph Genesis 30:22–24

²²Verse 22. God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb. ²³Verse 23. She conceived, bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” ²⁴Verse 24. She named him Joseph, saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”

Jacob's Desire to Leave Laban Genesis 30:25–36

²⁵Verse 25. When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country. ²⁶Verse 26. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.” ²⁷Verse 27. Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸Verse 28. He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.” ²⁹Verse 29. He said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.

³⁰Verse 30. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?” ³¹Verse 31. He said, “What shall I give you?” Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. ³²Verse 32. I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

³³Verse 33. So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be considered stolen.” ³⁴Verse 34. Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.” ³⁵Verse 35. That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. ³⁶Verse 36. He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Jacob's Breeding Strategy Genesis 30:37–43

³⁷Verse 37. Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. ³⁸Verse 38. He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. ³⁹Verse 39. The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Verse 40. Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.

⁴¹Verse 41. Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; ⁴²Verse 42. but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Verse 43. The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.