Genesis

He said to them, Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor? They said, We know him.

He said to them, Is it well with him? They said, It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.

He said, Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the cattle together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.

They said, We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.

While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them.

It happened, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.

Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.

It happened, when Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things.

Laban said to him, Surely you are my bone and my flesh. He lived with him for a month.

Laban said to Jacob, Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?

Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.

Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored.

Jacob loved Rachel. He said, I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.

Laban said, It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.

Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.

Jacob said to Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.

Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

It happened in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her.

Laban gave Zilpah his handmaid to his daughter Leah for a handmaid.

It happened in the morning that, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?

Laban said, It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the first born.

Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.

Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife.

Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her handmaid.

He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Leah conceived, and bore a son, and she named him Reuben. For she said, Because Yahweh has looked at my affliction. For now my husband will love me.

She conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Because Yahweh has heard that I am hated, he has therefore given me this son also. She named him Simeon.

She conceived again, and bare a son. Said, Now this time will my husband be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi.

She conceived again, and bare a son. She said, This time will I praise Yahweh. Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I will die.

Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

She said, Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her.

She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore called she his name Dan.

Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

Rachel said, With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed. She named him Naphtali.

When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

Leah said, How fortunate! She named him Gad.

Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me happy. She named him Asher.

Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found 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.

She said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes, also? Rachel said, Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son’s mandrakes.

Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, You must come in to me; for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes. He lay with her that night.

God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. She named him Issachar.

Leah conceived again, and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons. She named him Zebulun.

Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

She conceived, bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach.

She named him Joseph, saying, May Yahweh add another son to me.

It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, 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 you, and let me go: for you know my service with which I have served you.

Laban said to him, If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.

He said, Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.

He said to him, You know how I have served you, and how your cattle have fared with me.

For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?

He said, What shall I give you? Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen.

Laban said, Behold, I desire it to be according to your word.

That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

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

Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock.

It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and donkeys.

He heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. From that which was our father’s, has he gotten all this wealth.

Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before.

Yahweh said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.

Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock,

and said to them, I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me.

You know that I have served your father with all of my strength.

Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me.

If he said this, The speckled will be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, The streaked will be your wages, then all the flock bore streaked.

Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

It happened at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled.

The angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob, and I said, Here I am.

He said, Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.

Rachel and Leah answered him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?

Aren’t we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money.

For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.

Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels,

and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father to the land of Canaan .

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.

So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled.

He took his relatives with him, and pursued after him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, Take heed to yourself that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.

Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead.

Laban said to Jacob, What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword?