The Holy Bible. The Bible

      ¹⁶ And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for I have surely hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.

      ¹⁷ And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob a fifth son.

      ¹⁸ And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.

      ¹⁹ And Leah conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jacob.

      ²⁰ And Leah said, God hath endowed me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun.

      ²¹ And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah.

      ²² And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.

      ²³ And she conceived, and bare a son: and said, God hath taken away my reproach:

      ²⁴ and she called his name Joseph, saying, Jehovah add to me another son.

      ²⁵ And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.

      ²⁶ Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served thee, and let me go: for thou knowest my service wherewith I have served thee.

      ²⁷ And Laban said unto him, If now I have found favor in thine eyes, [tarry]: [for] I have divined that Jehovah hath blessed me for thy sake.

      ²⁸ And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

      ²⁹ And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle have fared with me.

      ³⁰ For it was little which thou hadst before I came, and it hath increased unto a multitude; and Jehovah hath blessed thee whithersoever I turned: and now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

      ³¹ And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me aught: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed thy flock and keep it.

      ³² I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and [of such] shall be my hire.

      ³³ So shall my righteousness answer for me hereafter, when thou shalt come concerning my hire that is before thee: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that [if found] with me, shall be counted stolen.

      ³⁴ And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.

      ³⁵ And he removed that day the he-goats that were ringstreaked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons;

      ³⁶ and he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

      ³⁷ And Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar, and of the almond and of the plane-tree. And peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

      ³⁸ And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink.

      ³⁹ And the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted.

      ⁴⁰ And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Laban's flock.

      ⁴¹ And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger of the flock did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods;

      ⁴² but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

      ⁴³ And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses.

      Chapter 31

       Table of Contents

      ¹ And he heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory.

      ² And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as beforetime.

      ³ And Jehovah said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

      ⁴ And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock,

      ⁵ and said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as beforetime; but the God of my father hath been with me.

      ⁶ And ye know that will all my power I have served your father.

      ⁷ And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

      ⁸ If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the flock bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be thy wages; then bare all the flock ringstreaked.

      ⁹ Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

      ¹⁰ And it came to pass at the time that the flock conceive, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled.

      ¹¹ And the angel of God said unto me in the dream, Jacob: and I said, Here am I.

      ¹² And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the he-goats which leap upon the flock are ringstreaked, speckled, and grizzled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.

      ¹³ I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst a pillar, where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy nativity.

      ¹⁴ And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house?

      ¹⁵ Are we not accounted by him as foreigners? for he hath sold us, and hath also quite devoured our money.

      ¹⁶ For all the riches which God hath taken away from our father, that is ours and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

      ¹⁷ Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;

      ¹⁸ and he carried away all his cattle, and all his substance which he had gathered, the cattle of his getting, which he had gathered in Paddan-aram, to go to Isaac his father unto the land of Canaan.

      ¹⁹ Now Laban was gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father's.

      ²⁰ And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he fled.

      ²¹ So he fled with all that he had; and he rose up, and passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

      ²² And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled.

      ²³ And he took his brethren with him, and pursued after him seven days' journey; and he overtook him in the mountain of Gilead.

      ²⁴ And God came to Laban the Syrian