Genesis — Chapter 30

Passage

And Rachel seeing herself without children, envied her sister, and said to her husband: Give me children, otherwise I shall die. And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who has deprived you of the fruit of your womb? But she said: I have here my servant Bala: go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children by her. And she gave him Bala in marriage: who, When her husband had gone in to her, conceived and bore a son. And Rachel said: The Lord has judged for me, and has heard my voice, giving me a son; and therefore she called his name Dan. And again Bala conceived, and bore another, For whom Rachel said: God has compared me with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called him Nephthali. Lia perceiving that she had left of bearing, gave Zelpha, her handmaid, to her husband. And when she had conceived, and brought forth a son, She said: Happily. And therefore called his name Gad. Zelpha also bore another. And Lia said: This is for my happiness: for women will call me blessed. Therefore she called him Aser. And Ruben going out in the time of the wheat harvest into the field, found mandrakes: which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of your son's mandrakes. She answered: Do you think it a small matter, that you have taken my husband from me, unless you take also my son's mandrakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with you this night, for your son's mandrakes. And when Jacob returned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: You will come in to me, because I have hired you for my son's mandrakes. And he slept with her that night. And God heard her prayers; and she conceived: and bore a fifth son: And said: God has given me a reward, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. And she called his name Issachar. And Lia conceived again, and bore the sixth son, And said: God has endowed me with a good dowry; this turn also my husband will be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and therefore she called his name Zabulon. After whom she bore a daughter, named Dina. The Lord also remembering Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bore a son, saying: God has taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph: saying: The Lord give me also another son. And when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his father-in-law: Send me away, that I may return into my country, and to my land. Give me my wives, and my children, for whom I have served you, that I may depart: you know the service that I have rendered you. Laban said to him: Let me find favour in your sight: I have learned, by experience, that God has blessed me for your sake. Appoint your wages which I shall give you. But he answered: You know how I have served you, and how great your possession has been in my hands. You hadst but little before I came to you, and now you are become rich: and the Lord has blessed you at my coming. It is reasonable, therefore, that I should now provide also for my own house. And Laban said: What shall I give you? But he said: I require nothing; but if you will do what I demand, I will feed and keep your sheep again. Go round through all your flocks, and separate all the sheep of divers colours, and speckled; and all that is brown and spotted, and of divers colours, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall be my wages. And my justice shall answer for me tomorrow before you, when the time of the bargain shall come; and all that is not of divers colours, and spotted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall accuse me of theft. And Laban said: I like well what you demandest. And he separated the same day the she-goats, and the sheep, and the he-goats, and the rams of divers colours, and spotted; and all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he delivered into the hands of his sons. And he set the space of three days journey betwixt himself and his son-in-law, who fed the rest of his flock. And Jacob took green rods of poplar, and of almond, and of plane-trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was taken off, in the parts that were pilled, there appeared whiteness: but the parts that were whole, remained green: and by this means the colour was divers. And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out; that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might conceive. And then, that in the very heat of coition, the sheep beheld the rods, and brought forth spotted, and of divers colours, and speckled. And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams; and all the white and the black were Laban's, and the rest were Jacob's, when the flocks were separated one from the other. So when the ewes went first to ram, Jacob put the rods in the troughs of water before the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might conceive while they were looking upon them. But when the later coming was, and the last conceiving, he did not put them. And those that were lateward, became Laban's; and they of the first time, Jacob's. And the man was enriched exceedingly, and he had many flocks, maid-servants and men-servants, camels and asses.