The One Year Bible for Women - Flipbook - Page 44
January 14
for me,* and through her I can have a family,
too.” 4 So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to
Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her. 5 Bilhah
became pregnant and presented him with a
son. 6 Rachel named him Dan,* for she said,
“God has vindicated me! He has heard my
request and given me a son.” 7 Then Bilhah
became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. 8 Rachel named him Naphtali,* for she
said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and
I’m winning!”
9 Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn’t
getting pregnant anymore, so she took her
servant, Zilpah, and gave her to Jacob as a
wife. 10 Soon Zilpah presented him with a son.
11 Leah named him Gad,* for she said, “How
fortunate I am!” 12 Then Zilpah gave Jacob a
second son. 13 And Leah named him Asher,*
for she said, “What joy is mine! Now the other
women will celebrate with me.”
14 One day during the wheat harvest, Reu
ben found some mandrakes growing in a field
and brought them to his mother, Leah. Rachel
begged Leah, “Please give me some of your
son’s mandrakes.”
15 But Leah angrily replied, “Wasn’t it enough
that you stole my husband? Now will you steal
my son’s mandrakes, too?”
Rachel answered, “I will let Jacob sleep
with you tonight if you give me some of the
mandrakes.”
16 So that evening, as Jacob was coming
home from the fields, Leah went out to meet
him. “You must come and sleep with me tonight!” she said. “I have paid for you with
some mandrakes that my son found.” So that
night he slept with Leah. 17 And God answered
Leah’s prayers. She became pregnant again
and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. 18 She
named him Issachar,* for she said, “God has
rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife.” 19 Then Leah became pregnant
again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob.
20 She named him Z
ebulun,* for she said, “God
has given me a good reward. Now my husband
will treat me with respect, for I have given him
six sons.” 21 Later she gave birth to a daughter
and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Ra
chel’s plight
and answered her prayers by enabling her
to have children. 23 She became pregnant and
gave birth to a son. “God has removed my
disgrace,” she said. 24 And she named him Jo
seph,* for she said, “May the Lord add yet another son to my family.”
25 Soon after Rachel had given birth to Jo
seph, Jacob said to Laban, “Please release me
so I can go home to my own country. 26 Let me
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take my wives and children, for I have earned
them by serving you, and let me be on my way.
You certainly know how hard I have worked
for you.”
27 “Please listen to me,” Laban replied. “I have
become wealthy, for* the Lord has blessed me
because of you. 28 Tell me how much I owe you.
Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”
29 Jacob replied, “You know how hard I’ve
worked for you, and how your flocks and
herds have grown under my care. 30 You had
little indeed before I came, but your wealth
has increased enormously. The Lord has
blessed you through everything I’ve done. But
now, what about me? When can I start providing for my own family?”
31 “What wages do you want?” Laban asked
again.
Jacob replied, “Don’t give me anything. Just
do this one thing, and I’ll continue to tend
and watch over your flocks. 32 Let me inspect
your flocks today and remove all the sheep
and goats that are speckled or spotted, along
with all the black sheep. Give these to me as
my wages. 33 In the future, when you check on
the animals you have given me as my wages,
you’ll see that I have been honest. If you find in
my flock any goats without speckles or spots,
or any sheep that are not black, you will know
that I have stolen them from you.”
34 “All right,” Laban replied. “It will be as you
say.” 35 But that very day Laban went out and
removed the male goats that were streaked
and spotted, all the female goats that were
speckled and spotted or had white patches,
and all the black sheep. He placed them in the
care of his own sons, 36 who took them a three-
days’ journey from where Jacob was. Meanwhile, Jacob stayed and cared for the rest of
Laban’s flock.
37 Then Jacob took some fresh branches
from poplar, almond, and plane trees and
peeled off strips of bark, making white streaks
on them. 38 Then he placed these peeled
branches in the watering troughs where the
flocks came to drink, for that was where they
mated. 39 And when they mated in front of
the w
hite-streaked branches, they gave birth
to young that were streaked, speckled, and
spotted. 40 Jacob separated those lambs from
Laban’s flock. And at mating time he turned
the flock to face Laban’s animals that were
streaked or black. This is how he built his own
flock instead of increasing Laban’s.
41 Whenever the stronger females were
ready to mate, Jacob would place the peeled
branches in the watering troughs in front of
them. Then they would mate in front of the
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