1 When Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, she envied her sister and said unto Jacob, "Give me children, or else I am but dead."
2 Then was Jacob wroth with Rachel saying, "Am I in God's stead which keepeth from thee the fruit of thy womb?"
3 Then she said, "Here is my maid, Bilhah: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my lap, that I may be increased by her." 4 And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife. And Jacob went in unto her: 5 And Bilhah conceived and bare Jacob a son. 6 Then said Rachel, "God hath given sentence on my side, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son." Therefore called she him Dan.
7 And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again; and bare Jacob another son. 8 And Rachel said, "God is turned, and I have made a change with my sister, and have gotten the upper hand." And she called his name Naphtali.
9 When Lea saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. 10 And Zilpah Lea's maid bare Jacob a son. 11 Then said Lea, "Good luck," and called his name Gad.
12 And Zilpah, Lea's maid, bare Jacob another son. 13 Then said Lea, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed." And called his name Asher.
14 And Reuben went out in the wheat harvest and found mandragoras in the fields, and brought them unto his mother Lea. Then said Rachel to Lea, "Give me of thy son's mandragoras."
15 And Lea answered, "Is it not enough, that thou hast taken away my husband, but wouldest take away my son's mandragoras also?" Then said Rachel, "Well, let him sleep with thee this night, for thy son's mandragoras."
16 And when Jacob came from the fields at even, Lea went out to meet him, and said, "Come in to me, for I have bought thee with my son's mandragoras." And he slept with her that night.
17 And God heard Lea, that she conceived and bare unto Jacob the fifth son. 18 Then said Lea, "God hath given me my reward, because I gave my maiden to my husband." And she called him Issachar. 19 And Lea conceived yet again and bare Jacob the sixth son. 20 Then said she, "God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." And called his name Zebulon. 21 After that she bare a daughter, and called her Dina.
22 And God remembered Rachel, heard her, and made her fruitful: 23 so that she conceived and bare a son, and said, "God hath taken away my rebuke." 24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, "The LORD give me yet another son."
25 As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place and country; 26 give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest what service I have done thee."
27 Then said Laban unto him, "If I have found favour in thy sight - for I suppose that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake - 28 appoint what thy reward shall be, and I will give it thee."
29 But he said unto him, "Thou knowest what service I have done thee, and in what taking thy cattle have been under me: 30 For it was but little that thou hadst before I came, and now it is increased into a multitude, and the LORD hath blessed thee for my sake. But now when shall I make provision for mine own house also?"
31 And he said, "What shall I give thee?" And Jacob answered, "Thou shalt give me nothing at all, if thou wilt do this one thing for me: And then will I turn again and feed thy sheep and keep them. 32 I will go about all thy sheep this day, and separate from them all the sheep that are spotted and of divers colors, and all black sheep among the lambs, and the party and spotted among the kids: And then such shall be my reward. 33 So shall my righteousness answer for me: when the time cometh that I shall receive my reward of thee: So that whatsoever is not speckled and party among the goats and black among the lambs, let that be theft with me."
34 Then said Laban, "Lo, I am content that it be according as thou hast said."
35 And he took out that same day the he-goats that were party and of divers colours, and all the goats that were spotted and party coloured, and all that had white in them, and all the black among the lambs: and put them in the keeping of his sons, 36 and set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob. And so Jacob kept the rest of Laban's sheep.
37 Jacob took rods of green poplar, hazel, and of chestnut trees, and peeled white streaks in them and made the white appear in the staves: 38 And he put the staves which he had peeled even before the sheep; in the gutters and watering troughs, when the sheep came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 And the sheep conceived before the staves, and brought forth streaked, spotted and party. 40 Then Jacob parted the lambs, and turned the faces of the sheep toward spotted things, and toward all manner of black things throughout the flocks of Laban. And he made him flocks of his own by themself, which he put not unto the flocks of Laban.
41 And always in the first bucking time of the sheep, Jacob put the staves before the sheep in the gutters, that they might conceive before the staves: 42 But in the latter bucking time, he put them not there: so the last brood was Laban's and the first Jacob's. 43 And the man became exceeding rich and had many sheep, maidservants, menservants, camels and asses.