Genesis 30 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Jacob’s Children

Gen 30:1Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!”

Gen 30:2

Gen 30:2And Jacob’s anger was aroused against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

Gen 30:3

Gen 30:3So she said, “Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, and she will bear a child on my knees, that I also may have children by her.”

Gen 30:4

Gen 30:4Then she gave him Bilhah her maid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

Gen 30:5

Gen 30:5And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

Gen 30:6

Gen 30:6Then Rachel said, “God has judged my case; and He has also heard my voice and given me a son.” Therefore she called his name Dan.[fn]

Gen 30:7

Gen 30:7And Rachel’s maid Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Gen 30:8

Gen 30:8Then Rachel said, “With great wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and indeed I have prevailed.” So she called his name Naphtali.[fn]

Gen 30:9

Gen 30:9When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and gave her to Jacob as wife.

Gen 30:10

Gen 30:10And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

Gen 30:11

Gen 30:11Then Leah said, “A troop comes!”[fn] So she called his name Gad.[fn]

Gen 30:12

Gen 30:12And Leah’s maid Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

Gen 30:13

Gen 30:13Then Leah said, “I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed.” So she called his name Asher.[fn]

Gen 30:14

Gen 30:14Now 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.”

Gen 30:15

Gen 30:15But 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?” And Rachel said, “Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.”

Gen 30:16

Gen 30:16When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, 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.” And he lay with her that night.

Gen 30:17

Gen 30:17And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Gen 30:18

Gen 30:18Leah said, “God has given me my wages, because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.[fn]

Gen 30:19

Gen 30:19Then Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

Gen 30:20

Gen 30:20And Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she called his name Zebulun.[fn]

Gen 30:21

Gen 30:21Afterward she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

Gen 30:22

Gen 30:22Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

Gen 30:23

Gen 30:23And she conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach.”

Gen 30:24

Gen 30:24So she called his name Joseph,[fn] and said, “The LORD shall add to me another son.”

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

Gen 30:25

Gen 30:25And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my country.

Gen 30:26

Gen 30:26“Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

Gen 30:27

Gen 30:27And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me for your sake.”

Gen 30:28

Gen 30:28Then he said, “Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

Gen 30:29

Gen 30:29So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me.

Gen 30:30

Gen 30:30“For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the LORD has blessed you since my coming. And now, when shall I also provide for my own house?”

Gen 30:31

Gen 30:31So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks:

Gen 30:32

Gen 30:32“Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and these shall be my wages.

Gen 30:33

Gen 30:33“So my righteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

Gen 30:34

Gen 30:34And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!”

Gen 30:35

Gen 30:35So he removed that day the male goats that were speckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

Gen 30:36

Gen 30:36Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Gen 30:37

Gen 30:37Now Jacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods.

Gen 30:38

Gen 30:38And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink.

Gen 30:39

Gen 30:39So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

Gen 30:40

Gen 30:40Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

Gen 30:41

Gen 30:41And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

Gen 30:42

Gen 30:42But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

Gen 30:43

Gen 30:43Thus the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

See the NKJV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NKJV Footnotes

(30:6)

Literally Judge

(30:8)

Literally My Wrestling

(30:11)

Following Qere, Syriac, and Targum; Kethib, Septuagint, and Vulgate read in fortune.

(30:11)

Literally Troop or Fortune

Literally Happy

Literally Wages

Literally Dwelling

Literally He Will Add

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For more information on this translation, see the NKJV Preface.