Genesis 30

Genesis 30

Genesis 30:1 When Rachel saw that she had not given birth to children for Jacob, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die!”

Genesis 30:2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

Genesis 30:3 Then she said, “Notice my female slave Bilhah; go in to her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her.”

Genesis 30:4 So she gave him her female slave Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

Genesis 30:5 And Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:6 Then Rachel said, “God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son.” That is why she called his name Dan.

Genesis 30:7 And Bilhah, Rachel’s female slave conceived again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:8 Then Rachel said, “With god-like wrestling I have wrestled with my sister and have been able to win.” So, she called his name Naphtali.

Genesis 30:9 When Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, she took her female slave Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Genesis 30:10 Then Leah’s female slave Zilpah gave birth to a son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:11 And Leah said, “Luck has come!” so she called his name Gad.

Genesis 30:12 Leah’s female slave Zilpah gave birth to a second son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:13 And Leah said, “I am happy! Because women have called me happy.” So, she called his name Asher.

Genesis 30:14 In the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes now.”

Genesis 30:15 But she said to her, “Is it a small thing that you have taken away my husband? Will you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” Rachel said, “Alright, he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

Genesis 30:16 When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You must come in to me, because I have certainly hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So, he lay with her that night.

Genesis 30:17 And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:18 Leah said, “God has given me my wages because I gave my female slave to my husband.” So, she called his name Issachar.

Genesis 30:19 And Leah conceived again, and she gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.

Genesis 30:20 Then Leah said, “God has honored me with a good honor; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” So, she called his name Zebulun.

Genesis 30:21 Afterward she gave birth to a daughter and called her name Dinah.

Genesis 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her prayers and opened her womb.

Genesis 30:23 She conceived and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”

Genesis 30:24 And she called his name Joseph, and this is what she said, “May Yahveh add to me another son!”

Genesis 30:25 As soon as Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own home and country.

Genesis 30:26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, because you know the service that I have given you.”

Genesis 30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that Yahveh has blessed me for your sake.

Genesis 30:28 Designate your desired wages, and I will give it.”

Genesis 30:29 Jacob said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you, and how your livestock has done well with me here.

Genesis 30:30 Because you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and Yahveh has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when will I provide for my own household also?”

Genesis 30:31 Laban said, “What should I give you?” Jacob said, “You will not give me anything. If you do this for me, I will again pasture your flock and keep it:

Genesis 30:32 let me pass through all your flock today, putting aside from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they will be my wages.

Genesis 30:33 So my integrity will answer for me later, when you come to look into my wages with you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.”

Genesis 30:34 Laban said, “Notice, It will be as you have said.”

Genesis 30:35 But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons.

Genesis 30:36 And he set a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flock.

Genesis 30:37 Then Jacob took new sticks from poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks.

Genesis 30:38 He set the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs where they watered, where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

Genesis 30:39 the flocks bred in front of the sticks and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

Genesis 30:40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. He put his own droves by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

Genesis 30:41 Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs in front of the eyes of the flock, that they would breed among the sticks,

Genesis 30:42 but for the weaker of the flock he would not lay them there. So, the weaker would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

Genesis 30:43 Thus Jacob got much wealthier and had large flocks, female slaves and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 30 quotes:

“Jacob’s agricultural wealth was vast (Genesis 30:43), so a caravan to secure critical feed and seed would have been enormous. Each of the ten brothers assembled the equipage and necessary servants for the round trip, choosing “asses” for the pack animals (Genesis 42:26 KJV). Although these beasts were smaller than camels, they were larger than donkeys and more mild-tempered. And since their journey would be along well-traveled trade highways, there would be no need for the camel’s fabled endurance.”

Morris, Henry M. The Book of Beginnings : A Practical Guide to Understand and Teach Genesis. Institute for Creation Research, 2012. p. 230.

“Rachel wrestled to come up with two sons in competition with her sister Leah, who was Jacob’s first wife and mother of six sons. At Naphtali’s birth Rachel said, “1 have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won” (Genesis 30:8), meaning that she could claim to have another child as her own. Her jealousy would also have derived from the fact that she had to share her husband with Leah.”

Nettelhorst, R. P. The Bible’s Most Fascinating People : An Illustrated Collection : Stories from the Old and New Testaments. Reader’s Digest Association, 2008. p. 42.

“Having a concubine — a slave taken as a secondary wife to produce an heir — was widespread, particularly among the wealthy. Sarah, frustrated by her barrenness, offered her slave to Abraham as a concubine (Genesis 16:1-4), though countless problems ensued (16:5-15; 21:8-21), and Leah and Rachel’s servants became Jacob’s concubines (Genesis 30:1—11). While concubinage died out in Israel, it was practised in Greece and Rome to provide sexual pleasure for men, though their children weren’t legitimate. Against this background the early church refused to baptize men who had a concubine but wouldn’t marry her.”

Beaumont, Mike. The New Lion Bible Encyclopedia. 1st ed., Lion Hudson, Plc ; Distributed by Trafalgar Square Pub, 2012. p. 87.