¹ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

² Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop [your word] toward the sanctuaries, and prophesy against the land of Israel;

³ and tell the land of Israel, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.

⁴ Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north:

⁵ and all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, have drawn forth my sword out of its sheath; it shall not return any more.

⁶ Sigh therefore, you son of man; with the breaking of your thighs and with bitterness you will sigh before their eyes.

⁷ It shall be, when they tell you, Why do you sigh? that you shall say, Because of the news, for it comes; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and it shall be done, says the Lord Yahweh.

⁸ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

⁹ Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says Yahweh: say, A sword, a sword, it is sharpened, and also furbished;

¹⁰ it is sharpened that it may make a slaughter; it is furbished that it may be as lightning: shall we then make mirth? the rod of my son, it condemns every tree.

¹¹ It is given to be furbished, that it may be handled: the sword, it is sharpened, yes, it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the killer.

¹² Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.

¹³ For there is a trial; and what if even the rod that condemns shall be no more? says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁴ You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together; and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the deadly wounded: it is the sword of the great one who is deadly wounded, which enters into their rooms.

¹⁵ I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied: ah! it is made as lightning, it is pointed for slaughter.

¹⁶ Gather yourselves together, go to the right, set yourselves in array, go to the left, wherever your face is set.

¹⁷ I will also strike my hands together, and I will cause my wrath to rest: I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹⁸ The word of Yahweh came to me again, saying,

¹⁹ Also, you son of man, appoint two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come; they both shall come forth out of one land: and mark out a place, mark it out at the head of the way to the city.

²⁰ You shall appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified.

²¹ For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows back and forth, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.

²² In his right hand was the divination [for] Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up mounds, to build forts.

²³ It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, who have sworn oaths to them; but he brings iniquity to memory, that they may be taken.

²⁴ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your doings your sins appear; because you have come to memory, you shall be taken with the hand.

²⁵ You, deadly wounded wicked one, the prince of Israel, whose day is come, in the time of the iniquity of the end,

²⁶ thus says the Lord Yahweh: Remove the turban, and take off the crown; this [shall be] no more the same; exalt that which is low, and abase that which is high.

²⁷ I will overturn, overturn, overturn it: this also shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].

²⁸ You, son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh concerning the children of Ammon, and concerning their reproach; and say, A sword, a sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to cause it to devour, that it may be as lightning;

²⁹ while they see for you false visions, while they divine lies to you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are deadly wounded, whose day is come in the time of the iniquity of the end.

³⁰ Cause it to return into its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your birth, will I judge you.

³¹ I will pour out my indignation on you; I will blow on you with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver you into the hand of brutish men, skillful to destroy.

³² You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the midst of the land; you shall be remembered no more: for I, Yahweh, have spoken it.

¹ The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

¹ When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."

² Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, "Am I in God's place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

³ She said, "Behold, my maid Bilhah. Go in to her, that she may bear on my knees, and I also may obtain children by her."

⁴ She gave him Bilhah her handmaid as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

⁵ Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

⁶ Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore called she his name Dan.

⁷ Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸ Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed." She named him Naphtali.

⁹ When Leah saw that she had finished bearing, she took Zilpah, her handmaid, and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

¹⁰ Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a son.

¹¹ Leah said, "How fortunate!" She named him Gad.

¹² Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, bore Jacob a second son.

¹³ Leah said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me Happy." She named him Asher.

¹⁴ Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

¹⁵ She said to her, "Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes, also?" Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes."

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

¹⁷ God listened to Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸ Leah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my handmaid to my husband." She named him Issachar.

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

²⁰ Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good dowry. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." She named him Zebulun.

²¹ Afterwards, she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.

²² God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.

²³ She conceived, bore a son, and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

²⁴ She named him Joseph, saying, "May Yahweh add another son to me."

²⁵ It happened, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country.

²⁶ Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you."

²⁷ Laban said to him, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake."

²⁸ He said, "Appoint me your wages, and I will give it."

²⁹ He said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me.

³⁰ For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?"

³¹ He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it.

³² I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire.

³³ So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen."

³⁴ Laban said, "Behold, let it be according to your word."

³⁵ That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female 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 He set three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

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

³⁸ He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink.

³⁹ The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰ Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn't put them into Laban's flock.

⁴¹ It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, 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 didn't put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.

⁴³ The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.