Genesis 30

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 And Rachel, seeing herself without children, envied her sister, and said to her husband: Give me children, otherwise I shall die.	1 When Rachel saw that she failed to bear children to Jacob, she became envious of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children or I shall die!"
2 And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb?	2 In anger Jacob retorted, "Can I take the place of God, who has denied you the fruit of the womb?"
3 But she said: I have here my servant Bala: go in unto her, that she may bear upon my knees, and I may have children by her.	3 She replied, "Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Have intercourse with her, and let her give birth on my knees, so that I too may have offspring, at least through her."
4 And she gave him Bala in marriage: who,	4 So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah as a consort, and Jacob had intercourse with her.
5 When her husband had gone in unto her, conceived and bore a son.	5 When Bilhah conceived and bore a son,
6 And Rachel said: The Lord hath judged for me, and hath heard my voice, giving me a son, and therefore she called his name Dan.	6 Rachel said, "God has vindicated me; indeed he has heeded my plea and given me a son." Therefore she named him Dan.
7 And again Bala conceived and bore another,	7 Rachel's maidservant Bilhah conceived again and bore a second son,
8 For whom Rachel said: God hath compared me with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called him Nephtali.	8 and Rachel said, "I engaged in a fateful struggle with my sister, and I prevailed." So she named him Naphtali.
9 Lia, perceiving that she had left off bearing, gave Zelpha her handmaid to her husband.	9 When Leah saw that she had ceased to bear children, she gave her maidservant Zilpah to Jacob as a consort.
10 And when she had conceived and brought forth a son,	10 So Jacob had intercourse with Zilpah, and she conceived and bore a son.
11 She said: Happily. And therefore called his name Gad.	11 Leah then said, "What good luck!" So she named him Gad.
12 Zelpha also bore another.	12 Then Leah's maidservant Zilpah bore a second son to Jacob;
13 And Lia said: This is for my happiness: for women will call me blessed. Therefore she called him Aser.	13 and Leah said, "What good fortune!"--meaning, "Women call me fortunate." So she named him Asher.
14 And Ruben, going out in the time of the wheat harvest into the field, found mandrakes: which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Give me part of thy son's mandrakes.	14 One day, during the wheat harvest, when Reuben was out in the field, he came upon some mandrakes which he brought home to his mother Leah. Rachel asked Leah, "Please let me have some of your son's mandrakes."
15 She answered: Dost thou think it a small matter, that thou hast taken my husband from me, unless thou take also my son's mandrakes? Rachel said: He shall sleep with thee this night, for thy son's mandrakes.	15 Leah replied, "Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you must now take my son's mandrakes too?" "Very well, then!" Rachel answered. "In exchange for your son's mandrakes, Jacob may lie with you tonight."
16 And when Jacob returned at even from the field, Lia went out to meet him, and said: Thou shalt come in unto me, because I have hired thee for my son's mandrakes. And he slept with her that night.	16 That evening, when Jacob came home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You are now to come in with me," she told him, "because I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes." So that night he slept with her,
17 And God heard her prayers: and she conceived and bore the fifth son,	17 and God heard her prayer; she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.
18 And said: God hath given me a reward, because I gave my handmaid to my husband. And she called his name Issachar.	18 Leah then said, "God has given me my reward for having let my husband have my maidservant"; so she named him Issachar.
19 And Lia conceived again, and bore the sixth son,	19 Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob;
20 And said: God hath endowed me with a good dowry: this turn also my husband will be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and therefore she called his name Zabulon.	20 and she said, "God has brought me a precious gift. This time my husband will offer me presents, now that I have borne him six sons"; so she named him Zebulun.
21 After whom she bore a daughter, named Diana.	21 Finally, she gave birth to a daughter, and she named her Dinah.
22 The Lord also remembering Rachel, heard her, and opened her womb.	22 Then God remembered Rachel; he heard her prayer and made her fruitful.
23 And she conceived, and bore a son, saying: God hath taken my reproach.	23 She conceived and bore a son, and she said, "God has removed my disgrace."
24 And she called his name Joseph, saying: The Lord give me also another son.	24 So she named him Joseph, meaning, "May the LORD add another son to this one for me!"
25 And when Joseph was born, Jacob said to his father in law: Send me away that I may return into my country, and to my land.	25 After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: "Give me leave to go to my homeland.
26 Give me my wives, and my children, for whom I have served thee, that I may depart: thou knowest the service that I have rendered thee.	26 Let me have my wives, for whom I served you, and my children, too, that I may depart. You know very well the service that I have rendered you."
27 Laban said to him: Let me find favour in thy sight: I have learned by experience, that God hath blessed me for thy sake.	27 Laban answered him: "If you will please. . . . "I have learned through divination that it is because of you that God has blessed me.
28 Appoint thy wages which I shall give thee.	28 So," he continued, "state what wages you want from me, and I will pay them."
29 But he answered: Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how great thy possession hath been in my hands.	29 Jacob replied: "You know what work I did for you and how well your livestock fared under my care;
30 Thou hadst but little before I came to thee, and now thou art become rich: and the Lord hath blessed thee at my coming. It is reasonable therefore that I should now provide also for my own house.	30 the little you had before I came has grown into very much, since the LORD'S blessings came upon you in my company. Therefore I should now do something for my own household as well."
31 And Laban said: What shall I give thee? But he said: I require nothing: but if thou wilt do what I demand, I will feed, and keep thy sheep again.	31 "What should I pay you?" Laban asked. Jacob answered: "You do not have to pay me anything outright. I will again pasture and tend your flock, if you do this one thing for me:
32 Go round through all thy flocks, and separate all the sheep of divers colours, and speckled: and all that is brown and spotted, and of divers colours, as well among the sheep, as among the goats, shall be my wages.	32 go through your whole flock today and remove from it every dark animal among the sheep and every spotted or speckled one among the goats. Only such animals shall be my wages.
33 And my justice shall answer for me to morrow before thee when the time of the bargain shall come: and all that is not of divers colours, and spotted, and brown, as well among the sheep as among the goats, shall accuse me of theft.	33 In the future, whenever you check on these wages of mine, let my honesty testify against me: any animal in my possession that is not a speckled or spotted goat, or a dark sheep, got there by theft!"
34 And Laban said: I like well what thou demandest.	34 "Very well," agreed Laban. "Let it be as you say."
35 And he separated the name day the she goats, and the sheep, and the he goats, and the rams of divers colours, and spotted: and all the flock of one colour, that is, of white and black fleece, he delivered into the hands of his sons.	35 That same day Laban removed the streaked and spotted he-goats and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, all those with some white on them, as well as the fully dark-colored sheep; these he left. . . in charge of his sons.
36 And he set the space of three days' journey betwixt himself and his son in law, who fed the rest of his flock.	36 Then he put a three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to pasture the rest of Laban's flock.
37 And Jacob took green robs of poplar, and of almond, and of place trees, and pilled them in part: so when the bark was taken off, in the parts that were pilled, there appeared whiteness: but the parts that were whole remained green: and by this means the colour was divers.	37 Jacob, however, got some fresh shoots of poplar, almond and plane trees, and he made white stripes in them by peeling off the bark down to the white core of the shoots.
38 And he put them in the troughs, where the water was poured out: that when the flocks should come to drink, they might have the rods before their eyes, and in the sight of them might conceive.	38 The rods that he had thus peeled he then set upright in the watering troughs, so that they would be in front of the animals that drank from the troughs. When the animals were in heat as they came to drink,
39 And it came to pass that in the very heat of coition, the sheep beheld the rods, and brought forth spotted, and of divers colours, and speckled.	39 the goats mated by the rods, and so they brought forth streaked, speckled and spotted kids.
40 And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams: and all the white and the black were Laban's: and the rest were Jacob's, when the flocks were separated one from the other.	40 The sheep, on the other hand, Jacob kept apart, and he set these animals to face the streaked or fully dark-colored animals of Laban. Thus he produced special flocks of his own, which he did not put with Laban's flock.
41 So when the ewes went first to ram, Jacob put the rods in the roughs of water before the eyes of the rams, and of the ewes, that they might conceive while they were looking upon them:	41 Moreover, whenever the hardier animals were in heat, Jacob would set the rods in the troughs in full view of these animals, so that they mated by the rods;
42 But when the latter coming was, and the last conceiving, he did not put them. And those that were late ward, become Laban's: and they of the first time, Jacob's.	42 but with the weaker animals he would not put the rods there. So the feeble animals would go to Laban, but the sturdy ones to Jacob.
43 And the man was enriched exceedingly, and he had many flocks, maid servants and men servants, camels and asses.	43 Thus the man grew increasingly prosperous, and he came to own not only large flocks but also male and female servants and camels and asses.