¹ Jakob hub seine Augen auf und sah seinen Bruder Esau kommen mit vierhundert Mann. Und teilete seine Kinder zu Lea und zu Rahel und zu beiden Mägden.

² Und stellete die Mägde mit ihren Kindern vorne an und Lea mit ihren Kindern hernach und Rahel mit Joseph zuletzt.

³ Und er ging vor ihnen her und neigete sich siebenmal auf die Erde, bis er zu seinem Bruder kam.

⁴ Esau aber lief ihm entgegen und herzete ihn und fiel ihm um den Hals und küssete ihn; und sie weineten.

⁵ Und hub seine Augen auf und sah die Weiber mit den Kindern und sprach: Wer sind diese bei dir? Er antwortete: Es sind Kinder, die Gott deinem Knechte bescheret hat.

⁶ Und die Mägde traten herzu mit ihren Kindern und neigeten sich vor ihm.

⁷ Lea trat auch herzu mit ihren Kindern und neigeten sich vor ihm. Danach trat Joseph und Rahel herzu und neigeten sich auch vor ihm.

⁸ Und er sprach: Was willst du mit all dem Heer, dem ich begegnet bin? Er antwortete: Daß ich Gnade fände vor meinem HERRN.

⁹ Esau sprach: Ich habe genug, mein Bruder; behalt, was du hast.

¹⁰ Jakob antwortete: Ach nicht! Habe ich Gnade funden vor dir, so nimm mein Geschenk von meiner Hand; denn ich sah dein Angesicht, als sähe ich Gottes Angesicht; und laß dir's wohlgefallen von mir.

¹¹ Nimm doch den Segen von mir an, den ich dir zugebracht habe; denn Gott hat mir's bescheret, und ich habe alles genug. Also nötigte er ihn, daß er's nahm.

¹² Und er sprach: Laß uns fortziehen und reisen; ich will mit dir ziehen.

¹³ Er aber sprach zu ihm: Mein HERR, du erkennest, daß ich zarte Kinder bei mir habe, dazu Vieh und säugende Kühe; wenn sie einen Tag übertrieben würden, würde mir die ganze Herde sterben.

¹⁴ Mein HERR ziehe vor seinem Knechte hin. Ich will mählich hinnach treiben, danach das Vieh und die Kinder gehen können, bis daß ich komme zu meinem HERRN in Seir.

¹⁵ Esau sprach: So will ich doch bei dir lassen etliche vom Volk, das mit mir ist. Er antwortete: Was ist's vonnöten? Laß mich nur Gnade vor meinem HERRN finden.

¹⁶ Also zog des Tages Esau wiederum seines Weges gen Seir.

¹⁷ Und Jakob zog gen Suchoth und bauete ihm ein Haus und machte seinem Vieh Hütten; daher heißt die Stätte Suchoth.

¹⁸ Danach zog Jakob gegen Salem, zu der Stadt des Sichem, die im Lande Kanaan liegt (nachdem er aus Mesopotamien kommen war), und machte sein Lager vor der Stadt.

¹⁹ Und kaufte ein Stück Ackers von den Kindern Hemors, des Vaters Sichems, um hundert Groschen; daselbst richtete er seine Hütte auf.

²⁰ Und richtete daselbst einen Altar zu und rief an den Namen des starken Gottes Israel.

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.