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.

¹ On that day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the seaside.

² Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.

³ He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, "Behold, a farmer went out to sow.

⁴ As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.

⁵ Others fell on rocky ground, where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of earth.

⁶ When the sun had risen, they were scorched. Because they had no root, they withered away.

⁷ Others fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them.

⁸ Others fell on good soil, and yielded fruit: some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.

⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

¹⁰ The disciples came, and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"

¹¹ He answered them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.

¹² For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever doesn't have, from him will be taken away even that which he has.

¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing, they don't hear, neither do they understand.

¹⁴ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, 'By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive:

¹⁵ for this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and should turn again; and I would heal them.'

¹⁶ "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

¹⁷ For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn't see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn't hear them.

¹⁸ "Hear, then, the parable of the farmer.

¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom, and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes, and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside.

²⁰ What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it;

²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

²² What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

²³ What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word, and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit, and brings forth, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty."

²⁴ He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,

²⁵ but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.

²⁶ But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

²⁷ The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did this darnel come from?'

²⁸ "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' "The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and gather them up?'

²⁹ "But he said, 'No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.

³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, "First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

³¹ He set another parable before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;

³² which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

³³ He spoke another parable to them. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened."

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things in parables to the multitudes; and without a parable, he didn't speak to them,

³⁵ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, "I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

³⁶ Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field."

³⁷ He answered them, "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,

³⁸ the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.

³⁹ The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

⁴⁰ As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,

⁴² and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

⁴³ Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

⁴⁴ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found, and hid. In his joy, he goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

⁴⁵ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a merchant seeking fine pearls,

⁴⁶ who having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

⁴⁷ "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet, that was cast into the sea, and gathered some fish of every kind,

⁴⁸ which, when it was filled, they drew up on the beach. They sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but the bad they threw away.

⁴⁹ So will it be in the end of the world. The angels will come forth, and separate the wicked from among the righteous,

⁵⁰ and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth."

⁵¹ Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They answered him, "Yes, Lord."

⁵² He said to them, "Therefore, every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things."

⁵³ It happened that when Jesus had finished these parables, he departed from there.

⁵⁴ Coming into his own country, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?

⁵⁵ Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?

⁵⁶ Aren't all of his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all of these things?"

⁵⁷ They were offended by him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and in his own house."

⁵⁸ He didn't do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.