3902. Genesis 30

1. And Rachel saw that she was not bearing children to Jacob, and Rachel felt jealous toward her sister, and she said to Jacob, “Give me sons; and if not, I will be dead.”

2. And Jacob burned with anger against Rachel and said, “Am I in place of God, who is holding back from you the fruit of the belly?”

3. And she said, “Look—my maid, Bilhah; come to her, and let her give birth on my knees, and I, yes I, will be built up from her.”

4. And she gave him Bilhah, her slave, to be his woman, and Jacob came to her.

5. And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

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

7. And Bilhah, Rachel’s slave, conceived again and bore a second son to Jacob.

8. And Rachel said, “With the wrestlings of God I have wrestled with my sister and even prevailed.” And she called his name Naphtali.

9. And Leah saw that she had stopped giving birth, and she took Zilpah, her slave, and gave her to Jacob to be his woman.

10. And Zilpah, Leah’s slave, bore Jacob a son.

11. And Leah said, “A troop comes,” and called his name Gad.

12. And Zilpah, Leah’s slave, bore a second son to Jacob.

13. And Leah said, “In my good fortune! Because daughters will call me fortunate.” And she called his name Asher.

14. And Reuben went in the days of the wheat harvest and found dudaim in a field and brought them to Leah his mother; and Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s dudaim.”

15. And [Leah] said to her, “Is it a little thing that you have taken my husband, and will you also take my son’s dudaim?” And Rachel said, “Then he will lie with you tonight, for your son’s dudaim.”

16. And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, “You shall come to me, because I have indisputably hired you with my son’s dudaim.” And he lay with her on that night.

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

18. And Leah said, “God has given me my reward because I gave my slave to my husband.” And she called his name Issachar.

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

20. And Leah said, “God has gifted me, me, with a good gift; this time my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she called his name Zebulun.

21. And afterward 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 is gathering up my disgrace.”

24. And she called his name Joseph, saying, “Jehovah add to me another son!”

25. And it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me and let me go to my place and to my land.

26. Give me my women and my children, because I served you for them, and let me go, because you know my service with which I have served you.”

27. And Laban said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes... . I have learned by experience that Jehovah has blessed me because of you.”

28. And he said, “Name the wage you claim of me and I will give it.”

29. And [Jacob] said to him, “You know how well I have served you and how your property has fared with me.

30. Because what you had previous to me was little, and it has burst into abundance, and Jehovah has blessed you at [every step of] my foot; and now, when shall I also do for my household?”

31. And he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You won’t [have to] give me anything if you do this word for me: let me return [and] pasture [and] guard your flock.

32. I will pass through your whole flock today removing from it every speckled and spotted animal, and every black animal among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled one among the she-goats, and it will be my wage.

33. And my righteousness will answer for me on a future day, when you come concerning my wage [that is] before you; all that which is not speckled and spotted among the she-goats and black among the lambs—it is stolen with me.”

34. And Laban said, “Here, by all means let it be according to your word!”

35. And on that day he removed the mottled and spotted he-goats, and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, every one in which there was white; and every black one among the lambs; and gave them into the hand of his sons.

36. And he put a journey of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob was pasturing Laban’s remaining flocks.

37. And Jacob took himself a fresh rod of poplar, and hazel and sycamore, and peeled white peelings on them, a baring of the white that was on the rods.

38. And he stood the rods that he had peeled in the channels, in the water troughs, where the flocks came to drink, opposite the flocks, and they went into heat as they came to drink.

39. And the flocks went into heat at the rods, and the flocks bore mottled, speckled, and spotted [offspring].

40. And Jacob separated the lambs and turned the faces of the flock toward the mottled and [toward] every black one in Laban’s flock and gave himself droves for himself alone and did not put them into Laban’s flock.

41. And it happened at every onset of heat in the flock (those mating first) that Jacob put rods before the eyes of the flock in the channels, for it to go into heat at the rods.

42. And at the later mating of the flock he did not put [the rods there], and [the offspring] of those mating later were Laban’s, and [the offspring] of those mating first were Jacob’s.

43. And the man spread out greatly, greatly, and he had many flocks and female slaves and male slaves and camels and donkeys.

Summary

THE previous chapter, using the figures of Jacob’s four sons by Leah, dealt with the state of a church (or of a person who becomes a church) in its climb from truth taught by faith to good done out of love.

This chapter uses the figures of Jacob’s sons by Rachel’s and Leah’s slaves, by Leah, and finally by Rachel to focus on the union of earthly truth with spiritual goodness by means of intermediate steps, following the same order we follow when we are being reborn.