Genesis 30:43 T 33
16 So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to
meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s
mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
17 God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth
son. 18 Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my
husband.” So she named him Issachar. a
19 Leah conceived a
gain and bore Jacob a s ixth son. 20 Then Leah said, “God
has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me
with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun. b
21 Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to con
ceive. 23 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken
away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph, c and said, “May the Lord add
to me another son.”
Jacob’s Flocks Increase
25 After Rachel gave b
irth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my
way so I can go back to my own homeland. 26 Give me my wives and children,
for whom I have s erved you, and I will be on my way. You know how much
work I’ve done for you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I
have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” 28 He
added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29 Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your
livestock has f ared under my care. 30 The little you had before I came has in
creased greatly, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I have been. But now,
when may I do something for my own household?”
31 “What shall I give you?” he asked.
“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one t hing
for me, I will go on tending your f locks and watching over them: 32 Let me go
through all your f locks today and remove from them every speckled or spot
ted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat. They
will be my wages. 33 And my honesty will testify for me in the future, when
ever you c heck on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession
that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be
considered stolen.”
34 “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” 35 That same day he re
moved all the male g
oats that were s treaked or spotted, and all the speckled
or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored
lambs, and he p
laced them in the care of his sons. 36 Then he put a t hree-day
journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest
of Laban’s flocks.
37 Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane
trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the
white inner wood of the branches. 38 Then he p
laced the p
eeled branches in
all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks
when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39 they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked
or speckled or spotted. 40 Jacob set a
part the young of the f lock by themselves,
but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged
to Laban. Thus he made separate f locks for himself and did not put them with
Laban’s animals. 41 Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would
place the branches in the t roughs in f ront of the ani m
als so they would mate
near the branches, 42 but if the ani m
als were weak, he would not place them
there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the s trong ones to Jacob. 43 In
this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks,
and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
a 18
c 24
Issachar sounds like the Hebrew for reward. b 20 Zebulun probably means honor.
Joseph means may he add.