Gênesis 30

¹ And when Rahel saw that she bare Iaakob no children, Rahel enuied her sister, and said vnto Iaakob, Giue me children, or els I dye.

² And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, [Am] I inIt is only God who makes one barren or fruitful, and therefore I am not at fault.God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

³ And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon myI will receive her children on my lap, as though they were my own.knees, that I may also have children by her.

⁴ Then shee gaue him Bilhah her mayde to wife, and Iaakob went in to her.

⁵ So Bilhah conceiued and bare Iaakob a sonne.

⁶ Then said Rahel, God hath giuen sentence on my side, and hath also heard my voyce, and hath giuen mee a sonne: therefore called shee his name, Dan.

⁷ And Bilhah Rahels maide coceiued againe, and bare Iaakob the second sonne.

⁸ And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister,The arrogancy of man's nature appears in that she condemns her sister, after she has received this benefit from God to bear children.and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali.

⁹ And when Leah saw that she had left bearing, shee tooke Zilpah her mayde, and gaue her Iaakob to wife.

¹⁰ And Zilpah Leahs mayde bare Iaakob a sonne.

¹¹ And Leah said,That is, God increases me with a multitude of children for so Jacob explains this name Gad (Gen_49:19).A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad.

¹² Againe Zilpah Leahs mayde bare Iaakob another sonne.

¹³ Then sayde Leah, Ah, blessed am I, for the daughters will blesse me; she called his name, Asher.

¹⁴ And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and foundWhich is a kind of herb whose root has a likeness to the figure of a man.mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

¹⁵ But shee answered her, Is it a small matter for thee to take mine husband, except thou take my sonnes mandrakes also? Then sayde Rahel, Therefore he shall sleepe with thee this night for thy sonnes mandrakes.

¹⁶ And Iaakob came from the fielde in the euening, and Leah went out to meete him, and sayde, Come in to mee, for I haue bought and payed for thee with my sonnes mandrakes: and he slept with her that night.

¹⁷ And God heard Leah and shee conceiued, and bare vnto Iaakob the fift sonne.

¹⁸ And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given myInstead of acknowledging her fault she boasts as if God had rewarded her for it.maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

¹⁹ After, Leah conceiued againe, & bare Iaakob the sixt sonne.

²⁰ Then Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowrie: nowe will mine husbande dwell with me, because I haue borne him sixe sonnes: & she called his name Zebulun.

²¹ After that, shee bare a daughter, and shee called her name Dinah.

²² And God remembred Rahel, and God heard her, and opened her wombe.

²³ And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away myBecause fruitfulness came as God's blessing, who said «Increase and multiply», barrenness was counted as a curse.reproach:

²⁴ And shee called his name Ioseph, saying, The Lord wil giue me yet another sonne.

²⁵ And assoone as Rahel had borne Ioseph, Iaakob said to Laban, Sende me away that I may go vnto my place and to my countrey.

²⁶ Giue me my wiues and my children, for whom I haue serued thee, and let me go: for thou knowest what seruice I haue done thee.

²⁷ To whom Laban answered, If I haue nowe found fauour in thy sight tarie: I haue perceiued that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.

²⁸ Also he said, Appoynt vnto me thy wages, and I will giue it thee.

²⁹ But he sayd vnto him, Thou knowest, what seruice I haue done thee, and in what taking thy cattell hath bene vnder me.

³⁰ For [it was] little which thou hadst before I [came], and it is [now] increased unto a multitude; and the LORD hath blessed thee since my coming: and now when shallThe order of nature requires that every one provide for his own family.I provide for mine own house also?

³¹ Then he saide, What shal I giue thee? And Iaakob answered, Thou shalt giue mee nothing at all: if thou wilt doe this thing for mee, I will returne, feede, and keepe thy sheepe.

³² I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats:That which is spotted, from now on.and [of such] shall be my hire.

³³ So shall myGod shall attest to my righteous dealing by rewarding my labours.righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for 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.

³⁴ Then Laban sayde, Goe to, woulde God it might be according to thy saying.

³⁵ Therefore he tooke out the same day the hee goates that were partie coloured and with great spots, and all the shee goates with litle and great spots, and all that had white in them, and all the blacke among the sheepe, and put them in the keeping of his sonnes.

³⁶ And hee set three dayes iourney betweene himselfe and Iaakob; Iaakob kept the rest of Labans sheepe.

³⁷ And JacobJacob used no deceit in this for it was God's commandment as he declares in (Gen_31:9, Gen_31:11).took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which [was] in the rods.

³⁸ Then he put the rods, which he had pilled, in the gutters and watering troughes, when the sheepe came to drink, before the sheepe. (for they were in heate, when they came to drinke)

³⁹ And the sheepe were in heate before the rods, and afterward brought forth yong of partie colour, and with small and great spots.

⁴⁰ And Iaakob parted these lambes, and turned the faces of the flocke towardes these lambes partie coloured and all maner of blacke, among the sheepe of Laban: so hee put his owne flockes by themselues, and put them not with Labans flocke.

⁴¹ And it came to pass, whensoever theAs they which took the ram about September and brought forth about March: so the feebler in March and lamb in September.stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

⁴² But when the sheepe were feeble, hee put them not in: and so the feebler were Labans, and the stronger Iaakobs.

⁴³ So the man encreased exceedingly, and had many flockes, and maide seruantes, and men seruants, and camels and asses.