Jacob responded, "You don't have to give me anything. Just do this for me: Let me tend your flock again and watch over it. Let me walk among your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, along with every black lamb, and let me do the same with the speckled and spotted goats. These will be my wages.

"These men are at peace with us," they announced. "Therefore, let them live in the land and trade in it. Look! The land is large enough for them. Let's take their daughters as wives for ourselves and let's give our sons to them.

Then God said, "Let the water beneath the sky come together into one area, and let dry ground appear!" And that is what happened:

Then God said, "Let the oceans swarm with living creatures, and let flying creatures soar above the earth throughout the sky!"

Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, to be like us. Let them be masters over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, the livestock, everything that crawls on the earth, and over the earth itself!"

Then they said, "Come on! Let's build ourselves a city and a tower, with its summit in the heavens, and let's make a name for ourselves so we won't be scattered over the surface of the whole earth."