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30 Now Rahel realised that she wasn’t producing any children for Yacob, so she envied her sister Le’ah, and she demanded from Yacob, “Give me children, and if you don’t, I’ll die!”
2 But Yacob’s anger flared up against Rahel and he asked, “Am I in the place of God who’s kept you from getting pregnant?”
3 Rahel answered, “Listen, here’s my slave Bilhah. Sleep with her so that she’ll have children on my behalf and I’ll also be able to have a family through her.” 4 Then she gave Bilhah to him as a slave wife and Yacob slept with her, 5 so then Bilhah got pregnant and produced a son for Yacob. 6 Rahel said, “God has vindicated me, and indeed he’s listened to my request and given me a son!” That’s why she named him ‘Dan’ (which means ‘he judged (in my favour)’). 7 Later on, Rahel’s slave Bilhah got pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Yacob 8 so Rahel said, “I’ve had a difficult battle with my sister but I’ve succeeded in the end!” So she named the baby ‘Naftali’ (which means ‘my struggle’).
9 Now when Le’ah noticed that she wasn’t getting pregnant any more, she gave her female slave Zilpah to Yacob as a slave wife. 10 Then eventually Le’ah’s slave Zilpah produced a son for Yacob, 11 and Le’ah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him ‘Gad’ (which means ‘fortunate’). 12 Then Le’ah’s slave Zilpah produced a second son for Yacob, 13 and Le’ah said, “How blessed I am because women will call me blessed.” So she named him ‘Asher’ (which means ‘blessed’).
14 One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants[fn] in the countryside and brought them home to Le’ah his mother. Then Rahel asked Le’ah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15 “Is it a small matter you have taken my husband?” Le’ah snapped back. “And would you also take my son’s mandrakes?”
“Well, he can sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.” Rahel answered. 16 So that evening when Yacob came home from the countryside, Leah went out to meet him and told him, “You must come to me tonight because I’ve hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
17 God listened to Le’ah and she got pregnant and produced a fifth son for Yacob, 18 saying, “God has given me my reward because I gave my slave to my husband to sleep with.” So she named him ‘Yissakar’ (which means ‘reward’). 19 Then Le’ah got pregnant again and produced a sixth son for Yacob, 20 saying, “God has given me a nice present. This time my husband will honour me because I have produced six sons for him.” So she called his name ‘Zebulun’ (which might mean ‘honour’). 21 Later on, Le’ah had a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God paid attention to Rahel and listened to her and enabled her to conceive, 23 so she got pregnant and produced a son, and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him ‘Yosef’ (which means ‘may he give another’), saying, “May Yahweh add another son to me.”
25 Sometime after Rahel had given birth to Yosef, Yacob said to Lavan, “Send me off now, so that I can return to my place and to my land. 26 Let me take my wives that I worked for you for, and take my children so that I can leave, because you yourself know how long and hard I’ve worked for you.”
27 But Lavan replied, “Please stay, if I’ve found favour in your eyes because I’ve learnt by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then he added, “Tell me how much you want and I’ll pay you that.”
29 “You yourself know how well I’ve served you and how your livestock have prospered with me.” Yacob replied. 30 Before I came, you didn’t have much, but now you have plenty because Yahweh has blessed you wherever I was involved. But now, when will I also do something for my own household?”
31 “What should I give you?” Lavan asked.
“You don’t have to give me anything,” Yacob replied. “If you’ll do this one thing for me, I’ll continue taking care of your flocks: 32 Let me look through all your flocks today and separate out from them all the lambs that are speckled, spotted, or dark-coloured, and all the young goats that are spotted or speckled. They will be my pay. 33 So in the future, you’ll be able to see that I’ve been honest because you’ll be able to see it for yourself: any goat that’s not speckled and spotted, and any sheep that’s not dark-coloured, if it’s in my flock then it must have been stolen.”
34 “Okay then, let’s do it your way.” Lavan agreed. 35 But that very day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, any that had white on it, and all the dark-coloured ones among the lambs. Then he gave them to his sons to look after, 36 and they took them a three-day journey away from where Yacob was, so Yacob was left just tending the rest of Lavan’s flocks.
37 Then Yacob got some freshly cut branches of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them by exposing the white that was inside the branches. 38 Then he put the branches that he had peeled in the water troughs where the flocks would see them when they came to drink, and they mated when they came to drink. 39 Thus the flocks would mate by the striped branches, and they would bear young who were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
40 Then Yacob separated out those young animals into a separate flock, and he made the older flocks look at the streaked and all the dark-coloured animals in Lavan’s flocks. So he kept his own flocks by themselves and didn’t mix them with Lavan’s flocks.
41 So whenever the strong animals were ready to mate, then Yacob put the branches in the troughs in front of the flocks so that they would mate by the branches, 42 but when the animals were weak, he didn’t put them in. So the weak animals went to Lavan and the strong ones to Yacob 43 so he became very wealthy, and he owned large flocks as well as male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.
30:14 The mandrake plants were believed to increase fertility, but it’s not clear from the text which part of the plant was used or how they were applied.
30:11 OSHB variant note: ב/גד: (x-qere) ’בָּ֣א’: lemma_935 morph_HVqrmsa id_01Q3H בָּ֣א ’גָ֑ד’: lemma_1409 n_1 morph_HNcmsa id_01gKG גָ֑ד
30:19 OSHB note: BHS has been faithful to the Leningrad Codex where there might be a question of the validity of the form and we keep the same form as BHS.
30:37 OSHB note: BHS has been faithful to the Leningrad Codex where there might be a question of the validity of the form and we keep the same form as BHS.
Genesis 21-35
Though the patriarch Isaac moved from place to place several times within southern Canaan, compared to his father Abraham and his son Jacob, Isaac appears to have been a bit of a homebody. In fact, unless Isaac resettled in places not recorded in Scripture, the farthest extent he ever traveled appears to have been only about 90 miles (113 km). Yet, as the child of God’s promise to Abraham to build a great nation from his descendants, Isaac’s relatively simple life served as a critical bridge from Abraham to the beginnings of the twelve tribes of Israel, who were descended from Isaac’s son Jacob. It is likely that Isaac was born at Beersheba (see Genesis 21:1-24), and later Abraham offered him as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah (located at Jerusalem; see 2 Chronicles 3:1). Then Abraham, Isaac, and those with them returned to Beersheba (Genesis 22:1-19). When Isaac reached adulthood, his father sent a servant to bring back a bride for him from Aram-naharaim, far north of Canaan. When his bride, Rebekah, arrived, Isaac had just come from Beer-lahai-roi and settled in the Negev (Genesis 24:62). Later Isaac resettled with Rebekah in Beer-lahai-roi, and this may have been where their twins son Esau and Jacob were born. A famine forced Isaac to go to Gerar (Genesis 26:1-6) in “the land of the Philistines.” The distinct people group known as the Philistines in later books of the Bible did not arrive until the time of the Judges, so the term here must have referred to another people group living in this region, and this is supported by the fact that King Abimelech’s name is Semitic, not Aegean (the likely origin of the later Philistines). While Isaac was there, he repeated his father’s error (Genesis 20) by lying to the king that his wife was only his sister. Isaac also became increasingly prosperous at Gerar, so the Philistines told him to leave their region. Isaac moved away from the town of Gerar and settled further away in the valley of Gerar. There he dug a well, but the Philistines claimed it for themselves, so he called it Esek, meaning “argument.” So Isaac’s men dug another well and called it Sitnah (meaning “hostility”), but it led to more quarreling, so he dug yet another well and called it Rehoboth (meaning “open space”). The locations of these two later wells are not certain, but they may have been located near Ruheibeh as shown on this map. Then Isaac moved to Beersheba and built an altar. He also dug a well there, and King Abimelech of the Philistines came and exchanged oaths of peace with him. It was likely at Beersheba that Isaac blessed his sons Esau and Jacob, and both sons eventually left Canaan (see “Jacob Goes to Paddan-Aram” map). When Jacob later returned, he traveled to Mamre near Hebron and reunited with Isaac. Sometime after this Isaac died, and Jacob and Esau buried him there.
GEN Intro C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50