Genesis 30 · Parashat Vayetze

And when Raĥel saw that she bore Ya῾aqov no children, Raĥel envied her sister; and said, Give me children, or else I die.

And Ya῾aqov’s anger burned against Raĥel: and he said, Am I in the place of God, Who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

And she said, Behold my maid Bilha, go in to her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.

And she gave him Bilha her handmaid to wife: and Ya῾aqov went in to her.

And Bilha conceived, and bore Ya῾aqov a son.

And Raĥel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan.

And Bilha Raĥel’s maid conceived again, and bore Ya῾aqov a second son.

And Raĥel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naftali.

When Le᾽a saw that she had stopped bearing, she took Zilpa her maid, and gave her to Ya῾aqov to wife.

And Zilpa Le᾽a’s maid bore Ya῾aqov a son.

And Le᾽a said, Fortune comes, and she called his name Gad.

And Zilpa Le᾽a’s maid bore Ya῾aqov a second son.

And Le᾽a said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

And Re᾽uven went in the days of the wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Le᾽a. Then Raĥel said to Le᾽a, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son’s mandrakes.

And she said to her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? and wouldst thou take away my son’s mandrakes also? And Raĥel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son’s mandrakes.

And Ya῾aqov came out of the field in the evening, and Le᾽a went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in to me; for indeed I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

And God hearkened to Le᾽a, and she conceived, and bore Ya῾aqov a fifth son.

And Le᾽a said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Yissakhar.

And Le᾽a conceived again, and bore Ya῾aqov a sixth son.

And Le᾽a said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zevulun.

And afterwards she bore a daughter, and called her name Dina.

And God remembered Raĥel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.

And she conceived, and bore a son; and said, God has taken away my reproach:

and she called his name Yosef; and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.

And it came to pass, when Raĥel had born Yosef, that Ya῾aqov said to Lavan, Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowst my service which I have done thee.

And Lavan said to him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, I have learned by signs that the Lord has blessed me for thy sake.

And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

And he said to him, Thou knowst how I have served thee, and how thy cattle were with me.

For the little which thou hadst before I came is now increased to a multitude; and the Lord has blessed thee since my coming: and now when shall I provide for my own house also?

And he said, What shall I give thee? And Ya῾aqov said, Thou shalt not give me anything: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.

I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown ones among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire.

So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when thou shalt come to see my hire before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

And Lavan said, Behold, would it might be according to thy word.

And he removed that day the he goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

And he set three days’ journey between himself and Ya῾aqov: and Ya῾aqov tended the rest of Lavan’s flocks.

And Ya῾aqov took him rods of green poplar, and of the almond and plane tree; and peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle streaked, speckled, and spotted.

And Ya῾aqov separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Lavan; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not to Lavan’s cattle.

And it came to pass, whenever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Ya῾aqov laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

But when the cattle were feeble, he did not put them in: so the feebler were Lavan’s, and the stronger Ya῾aqov’s.

And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.