¶ When Rahel saw that she bare Iacob no children, she envied her sister and said unto Iacob: give me children, or else I am but dead.
Then was Iacob wroth with Rahel saying: Am I in God's stead which keepeth from thee the fruit of thy womb?
Then she said: here is my maid Bilha: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my lap, that I may be increased by her.
And she gave him Bilha her handmaid to wife. And Iacob went in unto her:
And Bilha conceived and bare Iacob a son.
Then said Rahel: God hath given sentence on my side, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son. Therefore called she him Dan.
And Bilha Rahel's maid conceived again, and bare Iacob another son.
And Rahel said. God is turned, and I have made a change with my sister, and have gotten the upper hand. And she called his name Naphtali.
When Lea saw that she had left bearing, she took Silpha her maid, and gave her Iacob to wife.
And Silpha Lea's maid bare Iacob a son.
Then said Lea: Good luck: and called his name Gad.
And Silpha Lea's maid bare Iacob another son.
Then said Lea: happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. And called his name Asser.
¶ And Ruben went out in the wheat harvest and found mandragoras in the fields, and brought them unto his mother Lea. Then said Rahel to Lea give me of thy son's mandragoras.
And Lea answered: Is it not enough, that thou hast taken away my husband, but wouldest take away my son's mandragoras also? Then said Rahel well, let him sleep with thee this night, for thy son's mandragoras.
And when Iacob came from the fields at even, Lea went out to meet him, and said: come in to me, for I have bought thee with my son's mandragoras. And he slept with her that night.
And God heard Lea, that she conceived and bare unto Iacob the fifth son.
Then said Lea: God hath given me my reward, because I gave my maiden to my husband, and she called him Isachar.
And Lea conceived yet again and bare Iacob the sixth son.
Then said she: God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons: and called his name Zabulon.
After that she bare a daughter, and called her Dina.
And God remembered Rahel, heard her, and made her fruitful:
so that she conceived and bare a son, and said God hath taken away my rebuke.
And she called his name Ioseph saying: The LORD give me yet another son.
¶ As soon as Rahel had borne Ioseph, Iacob said to Laban: Send me away that I may go unto mine own place and country,
give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest what service I have done thee.
Then said Laban unto him: If I have found favour in thy sight (for I suppose that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake)
appoint what thy reward shall be, and I will give it thee.
But he said unto him, thou knowest what service I have done thee, and in what taking thy cattle have been under me:
For it was but little that thou hadst before I came, and now it is increased into a multitude, and the LORD hath blessed thee for my sake. But now when shall I make provision for mine own house also?
And he said: what shall I give thee? And Iacob answered: thou shalt give me nothing at all, if thou wilt do this one thing for me: And then will I turn again and feed thy sheep and keep them.
I will go about all thy sheep this day, and separate from them all the sheep that are spotted and of divers colours, and all black sheep among the lambs and the party and spotted among the kids: And then such shall be my reward.
So shall my righteousness answer for me: when the time cometh that I shall receive my reward of thee: So that whatsoever is not speckled and party among the goats and black among the lambs, let that be theft with me.
Then said Laban: Lo, I am content, that it be according as thou hast said.
And he took out that same day the he goats that were party and of divers colours, and all the goats that were spotted and party coloured, and all that had white in them, and all the black among the lambs: and put them in the keeping of his sons,
and set three days' journey betwixt himself and Iacob. And so Iacob kept the rest of Laban's sheep.
¶ Iacob took rods of green poplar, hazel, and of chestnut trees, and pilled white streaks in them and made the white appear in the staves:
And he put the staves which he had pilled, even before the sheep, in the gutters and watering troughs, when the sheep came to drink: that they should conceive when they came to drink.
And the sheep conceived before the staves, and brought forth streaked, spotted and party.
Then Iacob parted the lambs, and turned the faces of the sheep toward spotted things, and toward all manner of black things thorow out the flocks of Laban. And he made him flocks of his own by them self, which he put not unto the flocks of Laban.
And alway in the first bucking time of the sheep, Iacob put the staves before the sheep in the gutters, that they might conceive before the staves:
But in the latter bucking time, he put them not there: so the last brood was Laban's and the first Iacob's.
And the man became exceeding rich and had many sheep, maidservants, menservants, camels and asses.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.