¹ Now Rachel, because she had no children, was full of envy of her sister; and she said to Jacob, If you do not give me children I will not go on living.

² But Jacob was angry with Rachel, and said, Am I in the place of God, who has kept your body from having fruit?

³ Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go in to her, so that she may have a child on my knees, and I may have a family by her.

⁴ So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵ And Bilhah became with child, and gave birth to a son.

⁶ Then Rachel said, God has been my judge, and has given ear to my voice, and has given me a son; so he was named Dan.

⁷ And again Bilhah, Rachel's servant, was with child, and gave birth to a second son.

⁸ And Rachel said, I have had a great fight with my sister, and I have overcome her: and she gave the child the name Naphtali.

⁹ When it was clear to Leah that she would have no more children for a time, she gave Zilpah, her servant, to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰ And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a son.

¹¹ And Leah said, It has gone well for me: and she gave him the name Gad.

¹² And Zilpah, Leah's servant, gave birth to a second son.

¹³ And Leah said, Happy am I! and all women will give witness to my joy: and she gave him the name Asher.

¹⁴ Now at the time of the grain-cutting, Reuben saw some love-fruits in the field, and took them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to her, Let me have some of your son's love-fruits.

¹⁵ But Leah said to her, Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband from me? and now would you take my son's love-fruits? Then Rachel said, You may have him tonight in exchange for your son's love-fruits.

¹⁶ In the evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah went out to him and said, Tonight you are to come to me, for I have given my son's love-fruits as a price for you. And he went in to her that night.

¹⁷ And God gave ear to her and she became with child, and gave Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸ Then Leah said, God has made payment to me for giving my servant-girl to my husband: so she gave her son the name Issachar.

¹⁹ And again Leah became with child, and she gave Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰ And she said, God has given me a good bride-price; now at last will I have my husband living with me, for I have given him six sons: and she gave him the name Zebulun.

²¹ After that she had a daughter, to whom she gave the name Dinah.

²² Then God gave thought to Rachel, and hearing her prayer he made her fertile.

²³ And she was with child, and gave birth to a son: and she said, God has taken away my shame.

²⁴ And she gave him the name Joseph, saying, May the Lord give me another son.

²⁵ Now after the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Let me go away to my place and my country.

²⁶ Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have been your servant, and let me go: for you have knowledge of all the work I have done for you.

²⁷ And Laban said, If you will let me say so, do not go away; for I have seen by the signs that the Lord has been good to me because of you.

²⁸ Say then what your payment is to be and I will give it.

²⁹ Then Jacob said, You have seen what I have done for you, and how your cattle have done well under my care.

³⁰ For before I came you had little, and it has been greatly increased; and the Lord has given you a blessing in everything I have done; but when am I to do something for my family?

³¹ And Laban said, What am I to give you? And Jacob said, Do not give me anything; but I will again take up the care of your flock if you will only do this for me:

³² Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from among them all the sheep which are marked or coloured or black, and all the marked or coloured goats: these will be my payment.

³³ And so you will be able to put my honour to the test in time to come; if you see among my flocks any goats which are not marked or coloured, or any sheep which is not black, you may take me for a thief.

³⁴ And Laban said, Let it be as you say.

³⁵ So that day he took all the he-goats which were banded or coloured, and all the she-goats which were marked or coloured or had white marks, and all the black sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons;

³⁶ And sent them three days' journey away: and Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flock.

³⁷ Then Jacob took young branches of trees, cutting off the skin so that the white wood was seen in bands.

³⁸ And he put the banded sticks in the drinking-places where the flock came to get water; and they became with young when they came to the water.

³⁹ And because of this, the flock gave birth to young which were marked with bands of colour.

⁴⁰ These lambs Jacob kept separate; and he put his flock in a place by themselves and not with Laban's flock.

⁴¹ And whenever the stronger ones of the flock became with young, Jacob put the sticks in front of them in the drinking-places, so that they might become with young when they saw the sticks.

⁴² But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put the sticks before them; so that the feebler flocks were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's.

⁴³ So Jacob's wealth was greatly increased; he had great flocks and women-servants and men-servants and camels and asses.

¹ There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.

² Yahweh appeared to him, and said, "Don't go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about.

³ Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For to you, and to your seed, I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.

⁴ I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and will give to your seed all these lands. In your seed will all the nations of the earth be blessed,

⁵ because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws."

⁶ Isaac lived in Gerar.

⁷ The men of the place asked him about his wife. He said, "She is my sister," for he was afraid to say, "My wife," lest, he thought, "the men of the place might kill me for Rebekah, because she is beautiful to look at."

⁸ It happened, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was caressing Rebekah, his wife.

⁹ Abimelech called Isaac, and said, "Behold, surely she is your wife. Why did you say, 'She is my sister?'" Isaac said to him, "Because I said, 'Lest I die because of her.'"

¹⁰ Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!"

¹¹ Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, "He who touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."

¹² Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

¹³ The man grew great, and grew more and more until he became very great.

¹⁴ He had possessions of flocks, possessions of herds, and a great household. The Philistines envied him.

¹⁵ Now all the wells which his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped, and filled with earth.

¹⁶ Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go from us, for you are much mightier than we."

¹⁷ Isaac departed from there, encamped in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.

¹⁸ Isaac dug again the wells of water, which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father. For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham. He called their names after the names by which his father had called them.

¹⁹ Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

²⁰ The herdsmen of Gerar argued with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, "The water is ours." He called the name of the well Esek, because they contended with him.

²¹ They dug another well, and they argued over that, also. He called its name Sitnah.

²² He left that place, and dug another well. They didn't argue over that one. He called it Rehoboth. He said, "For now Yahweh has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."

²³ He went up from there to Beersheba.

²⁴ Yahweh appeared to him the same night, and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Don't be afraid, for I am with you, and will bless you, and multiply your seed for my servant Abraham's sake."

²⁵ He built an altar there, and called on the name of Yahweh, and pitched his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.

²⁶ Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phicol the captain of his army.

²⁷ Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me, and have sent me away from you?"

²⁸ They said, "We saw plainly that Yahweh was with you. We said, 'Let there now be an oath between us, even between us and you, and let us make a covenant with you,

²⁹ that you will do us no harm, as we have not touched you, and as we have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of Yahweh."

³⁰ He made them a feast, and they ate and drank.

³¹ They rose up some time in the morning, and swore one to another. Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

³² It happened the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said to him, "We have found water."

³³ He called it Shibah. Therefore the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.

³⁴ When Esau was forty years old, he took as wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite.

³⁵ They grieved Isaac's and Rebekah's spirits.