Genesis 30 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Sons of Jacob

Gen 30:1When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!"

Gen 30:2

Gen 30:2Jacob's anger was kindled 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 30:3Then she said, "Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees, and even I may have children through her."

Gen 30:4

Gen 30:4So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a 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 me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son"; therefore she called his name Dan.

Gen 30:7

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

Gen 30:8

Gen 30:8Then Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed"; so she called his name Naph'tali.

Gen 30:9

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

Gen 30:10

Gen 30:10Then Leah's maid Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

Gen 30:11

Gen 30:11And Leah said, "Good fortune!" so she called his name Gad.

Gen 30:12

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

Gen 30:13

Gen 30:13And Leah said, "Happy am I! For the women will call me happy"; so she called his name Asher.

Gen 30:14

Gen 30:14In 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, "Give me, I pray, 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?" Rachel said, "Then he may lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

Gen 30:16

Gen 30:16When 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.

Gen 30:17

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

Gen 30:18

Gen 30:18Leah said, "God has given me my hire because I gave my maid to my husband"; so she called his name Is'sachar.

Gen 30:19

Gen 30:19And Leah conceived again, and she bore Jacob a sixth son.

Gen 30:20

Gen 30:20Then 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 called his name Zeb'ulun.

Gen 30:21

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

Gen 30:22

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

Gen 30:23

Gen 30:23She conceived and bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach";

Gen 30:24

Gen 30:24and she called his name Joseph, saying, "May the LORD add to me another son!"

Jacob Prospers

Gen 30:25

Gen 30:25When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.

Gen 30:26

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

Gen 30:27

Gen 30:27But 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;

Gen 30:28

Gen 30:28name your wages, and I will give it."

Gen 30:29

Gen 30:29Jacob said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.

Gen 30:30

Gen 30:30For 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?"

Gen 30:31

Gen 30:31He 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:

Gen 30:32

Gen 30:32let 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.

Gen 30:33

Gen 30:33So 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."

Gen 30:34

Gen 30:34Laban said, "Good! Let it be as you have said."

Gen 30:35

Gen 30:35But that day Laban removed the he-goats that were striped and spotted, and all the she-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;

Gen 30:36

Gen 30:36and he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob; and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock.

Gen 30:37

Gen 30:37Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods.

Gen 30:38

Gen 30:38He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the runnels, that is, the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

Gen 30:39

Gen 30:39the flocks bred in front of the rods and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

Gen 30:40

Gen 30:40And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock.

Gen 30:41

Gen 30:41Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding Jacob laid the rods in the runnels before the eyes of the flock, that they might breed among the rods,

Gen 30:42

Gen 30:42but for the feebler of the flock he did not lay them there; so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

Gen 30:43

Gen 30:43Thus the man grew exceedingly rich, and had large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and asses.

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Source: Transcribed from: The Holy Bible: Revised Standard Version containing the Old and New Testaments, translated from the original tongues: being the version set forth A.D. 1611, revised A.D. 1881-1885 and A.D. 1901: compared with the most ancient authorities and revised A.D. 1946-52. — 2nd ed. of New Testament A.D. 1971. There should be enough in the rest of the description to identify the text.

Language: English

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Genesis 30 :: Revised Standard Version (RSV)

The Sons of Jacob

Jacob Prospers

Pericope