Genesis 30 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

The Sons of Jacob

1When Rachel saw that she conceived no children for Jacob, she envied her sister, and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.”

2Then Jacob became furious with Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has denied you children?”

3She said, “Here, take my maid Bilhah and go in to her; and she shall deliver it on my knees, so that by her I may also have children.”

4So she gave him Bilhah her maid as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

5Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son for Jacob.

6Then Rachel said, “God has judged and vindicated me, and has heard my plea and has given me a son.” So she named him Dan (He judged).

7Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, conceived again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

8So Rachel said, “With mighty wrestlings I have struggled with my sister and have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali (my wrestlings).

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

10Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a son for Jacob.

11Then Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad (good fortune).

12Zilpah, Leah’s maid, gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

13Then Leah said, “I am happy! For women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher (happy).

14Now at the time of wheat harvest Reuben went and found some 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.”

15But Leah answered, “Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes also?” So Rachel said, “Jacob shall sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

16When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must sleep with me, for I have in fact hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

17God listened and answered Leah, and she conceived and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.

18Then Leah said, “God has given me my reward because I have given my maid to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

19Leah conceived again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.

20Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now he will live with me, because I have given birth to six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

21Afterward she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel, and God thought of her and opened her womb.

23So she conceived and gave birth to a son; and she said, “God has taken away my disgrace and humiliation.”

24She named him Joseph (may He add) and said, “May the Lord add to me another son.”

Jacob Prospers

25Now when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go back to my own place and to my own country.

26Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know the work which I have done for you.”

27But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; for I have learned that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”

28He said, “Name your wages, and I will give it.”

29Jacob answered him, “You know how I have served you and how your possessions, your cattle and sheep and goats, have fared with me.

30For you had little before I came and it has increased and multiplied abundantly, and the Lord has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household?”

31Laban asked, “What shall I give you?” Jacob replied, “You shall not give me anything. But if you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:

32Let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every dark or black one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages.

33So my honesty will be evident for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark among the young lambs, if found with me, shall be considered stolen.”

34And Laban said, “Good! Let it be done as you say.”

35So on that same day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one with white on it, and all the dark ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.

36And he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was then left in care of the rest of Laban’s flock.

37Then Jacob took branches of fresh poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white in the branches.

38Then he set the branches which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated and conceived when they came to drink.

39So the flocks mated and conceived by the branches, and the flocks gave birth to streaked, speckled, and spotted offspring.

40Jacob separated the lambs, and he made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the dark or black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

41Furthermore, whenever the stronger of the flocks were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the sight of the flock in the watering troughs, so that they would mate and conceive among the branches;

42but when the flock was sickly, he did not put the branches there; so the sicker were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.

43So Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.