Genesis
Chapter 30
When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister, so she said to Jacob: “Give me sons or I shall die.”
Jacob became angry and said to her: “Is it my fault that God has deprived you of children?”
She then said: “Here is my servant Bilhah; sleep with her so that she may give birth on my knees; so the child will be mine.”
And she gave Bilhah her servant to Jacob as a wife.
She became pregnant and bore him a son.
Rachel then said: “God has done me justice! He has heard my prayer and given me a son. That is why she named him Dan.
Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, bore a second son to Jacob.
And Rachel said: “I have had a mighty struggle with my sister, and I have won!” And so she named her son Naphtali.
When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Zilpah bore a son for Jacob.
Leah said:“How fortunate!” And named him Gad.
Leah’s servant bore a second son to Jacob.
Leah said: “How happy I am! Women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.
At the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben went out to the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother, Leah. Rachel said to Leah: “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
But Leah replied: “Isn’t it enough for you to have taken my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well!” Rachel then said: “He will sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”
In the evening, when Jacob came in from the fields, Leah went to meet him and said:“You will sleep with me tonight, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes!” So he slept with her that night.
The Lord heard Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Leah said: “God has given me my reward because I gave my maidservant to my husband.” She named the child Issachar.
Leah bore another son to Jacob.
Then she said, “God has offered me a beautiful gift; this time my husband will honor me for I have given him six children.” She named the child Zebulun.
Later, she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
Then the Lord remembered Rachel and allowed her to have a child.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. “The Lord has taken away my shame,” she said.
And she named the child Joseph, saying, “May the Lord give me another son.”
Jacob and Laban
After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob told Laban: “Let me go so that I may return to my homeland.
Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you know how well I have served you.”
Laban said: “If I have won your friendship… I have learned from signs that the Lord has blessed me because of you.”
He then added: “Say what you want for wages, and I will pay you.”
Jacob said: “You know how well I have served you and how your cattle have prospered with me.
For you had little when I came, but since I have been with you, there has been a considerable increase, and the Lord has blessed you. But now, when will I do something for my own household?”
Laban asked: “What shall I give you?” Jacob replied: “You will give me nothing, but if you do for me what I ask, I will continue to pasture and look after your flock.
Today, I shall go through your flock, removing from it every black lamb and the spotted and speckled among the goats; these shall be my wages.
My honesty will speak for itself later when you review my wages. Any goat among my herd that is not spotted or speckled, any lamb found among the sheep in my possession that is not black will be counted as stolen.”
Laban said: “Agreed, it will be as you say.”
That same day, Laban put aside the streaked he-goats, everyone with white on it, and all the black sheep. He handed these over to his son,
and he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob. So Jacob took care of the rest of Laban’s flock.
Jacob then gathered fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane. He peeled white streaks into them, revealing the white of the stems.
Then he placed the peeled branches in front of the channels of the watering troughs where the animals came to drink, so that they would be in front of them. As they mated in front of the branches while drinking,
the animals produced streaked, spotted, and speckled young.
He separated the sheep but made the others face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. In this way, he built up his own flocks without adding to Laban’s.
Whenever the stronger ewes were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the channels in front of them so they would mate there among the branches.
However, for the weaker ewes, he did not place them there, so the weaker ones were for Laban and the stronger ones for Jacob.
Consequently, he became extremely rich with many sheep, maidservants and menservants, camels, and donkeys.
Commentaries
Sons of Jacob.
The people of Israel recognize their diverse origins. Although they all share the same father, they do not have the same mother; thus, the redactors need to emphasize the maternal lineage of each individual who will become the father of one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Along similar lines as Laban, who married the eldest daughter first, the redactor points out that it is Leah, the eldest sister and the fertile one, who first begins to conceive and fulfill the promise of offspring.
Rachel takes a dim view of the fact that her sister, who is not strictly Jacob’s legitimate wife, is the one giving birth to her husband’s children. In response, she resorts to adoption by giving her slave Bilhah the opportunity to conceive and give birth on her behalf (30:1-3). Not one, but two sons, Dan and Naphtali, are born from this union between Jacob and Rachel’s handmaid (30:4-8).
Leah, who, despite having already given birth to four children, feels jealous of her sister, proposes to Jacob the same procedure: to lie with her slave Zilpah, who gives Jacob two new sons (30:9-13). A family incident between Rachel and Leah serves as a framework for Rachel to “authorize” her sister to sleep with her husband again (30:14-16); from this, two new sons and a woman, Dinah, are born (30:17-21).
At this moment, God remembers Rachel and grants her the grace to conceive, increasing the number of Jacob’s children to eleven. The birth of Joseph concludes the cycle of stories and legends about Jacob and his children in the land of their ancestors, preparing us for the return of the patriarch and his family to the Promised Land.
The names of the sons and the circumstances surrounding each birth designate their origins and describe the types of relationships that the twelve tribes experienced in the land of Canaan during that historical event.
FALSE
The negotiation between Laban and Jacob highlights the intimate goal of taking advantage of one another. It was reasonable that the growth of the family pushed Jacob to seek new opportunities. However, it was also reasonable for Laban to aim to maintain control over such a large and prosperous clan. Ultimately, Jacob emerges victorious.