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Genesis 30

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1 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

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

3 And she said, Behold, there is my maid, Bilhah: go in to her, in order that she may bear on my knees, and I may also be built up by her.

4 And she gave him Bilhah her maidservant as wife, and Jacob went in to her.

5 And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son.

6 And Rachel said, God has done me justice, and has also heard my voice, and given me a son; therefore she called his name Dan.

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

8 And Rachel said, Wrestlings of God have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed; and she called his name Naphtali.

9 And when Leah saw that she had ceased to bear, she took Zilpah her maidservant and gave her to Jacob as wife.

10 And Zilpah Leah's maidservant bore Jacob a son.

11 And Leah said, Fortunately! and she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah Leah's maidservant bore Jacob a second son.

13 And Leah said, Happy am I; for the daughters will call me blessed! and she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went out in the days of wheat-harvest, and found mandrakes in the fields; and he brought them to his mother Leah. And Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

15 And she said to her, Is it [too] little that thou hast taken my husband, that thou wilt take my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee to-night for thy son's mandrakes.

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

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

18 And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I have given my maidservant to my husband; and she called his name Issachar.

19 And Leah again conceived, and bore Jacob a sixth son;

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

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

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

23 And she conceived, and bore a son, and said, God has taken away my reproach.

24 And she called his name Joseph; and said, Jehovah will add to me another son.

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

26 Give [me] my wives for whom I have served thee, and my children; that I may go away, for thou knowest my service which I have served thee.

27 And Laban said to him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes -- I have discovered that Jehovah has blessed me for thy sake.

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

29 And he said to him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and what thy cattle has become with me.

30 For it was little that thou hadst before me, and it is increased to a multitude, and Jehovah has blessed thee from the time I came; and now, when shall I also provide for my house?

31 And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me anything. If thou doest this for me, I will again feed [and] keep thy flock:

32 I will pass through all thy flock to-day, to remove thence all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and [that] shall be my hire.

33 And my righteousness shall answer for me hereafter, when thou comest about my hire, before thy face: all that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, let that be stolen with me.

34 And Laban said, Well, let it be according to thy word.

35 And he removed that day the he-goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she-goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the brown among the lambs, and gave [them] into the hand of his sons.

36 And he put three days' journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock.

37 And Jacob took fresh rods of white poplar, almond-tree, and maple; and peeled off white stripes in them, uncovering the white which was on the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flock, in the troughs at the watering-places where the flock came to drink, and they were ardent when they came to drink.

39 And the flock was ardent before the rods; and the flock brought forth ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flock toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he made himself separate flocks, and did not put them with Laban's flock.

41 And it came to pass whensoever the strong cattle were ardent, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might become ardent among the rods;

42 but when the sheep were feeble, he put [them] not in; so the feeble were Laban's, and the strong Jacob's.

43 And the man increased very, very much, and had much cattle, and bondwomen, and bondmen, and camels, and asses.

   

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #3982

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3982. 'And he said, Indicate your wages to me, and I will give them' means that it would of itself impart that which was desired. This becomes clear without explanation. The things that have been mentioned up to now are not such as can be explained easily and intelligibly. One reason for this is that the mind cannot be turned away instantaneously from the historical details concerning Laban and Jacob to the spiritual matters which are the subject in the internal sense; for the historical picture always lingers and fills one's whole mental view, and yet it must completely fade so to speak, in order that things which are not historical may be comprehended in a connected sequence. Another reason why the things mentioned up to now cannot be explained intelligibly is that one needs to have a clear conception of the types of good which the two of them - Laban and Jacob - represent. And one also needs to know that the good which Laban represents is such that it is of limited use - namely the use it serves to introduce genuine truths and goods; and that once it has performed that use it is discarded. The nature of that good has been discussed already. It is like the unripe part of fruits when they are first formed. Through that which is unripe, juice is introduced, and once the unripe part has served its purpose it passes away and the fruits ripen by means of other fibres, and at length by means of the fibres carrying the real juice.

[2] It is well known that a person learns many things in early and later childhood, the sole purpose being that through them as means he may learn things that are more useful, and then through these, things that are more useful still, until finally he learns those that have to do with eternal life; and that when he learns the latter the earlier things he has learnt are virtually obliterated. In a similar way when somebody is being born anew from the Lord he is led by means of many affections for good and truth which are not affections for genuine good and truth but those which enable him to have a mental grasp of the genuine and after that to be endued with them. Once he has been endued with them the previous things sink into oblivion and are discarded, because they have served solely as means. The same also applies to the parallel good meant by 'Laban' in relation to the good of truth meant by 'Jacob', and also by each one's flock, dealt with below.

[3] These are the arcana contained in these words and those that follow, but they have been conveyed within a historical description so that the Word may be read with pleasure even by children and by the simple - the end in view being that when these persons take delight in the historical sense the angels present with them may enter into the holiness of the internal sense; for the internal sense is suited to the intelligence of angels, while the external sense is suited to that of men. In this way man is in fellowship with angels, though he is not directly conscious of it. All that he perceives from that fellowship is a kind of delight in which holiness is present.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.