Study Desk

Ya‘akov said to Lavan, "Give me my wife, since my time is finished, so that I can start living with her."

Ya‘akov agreed to this, so he finished her week, and Lavan gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

So not only did Ya‘akov go in and sleep with Rachel, but he also loved Rachel more than Le'ah. Then he served Lavan another seven years.

Adonai saw that Le'ah was unloved, so he made her fertile, while Rachel remained childless.

She conceived again, gave birth to a son and said, "It is because Adonai has heard that I am unloved; therefore he has given me this son also." So she named him Shim‘on [hearing].

She said, "Here is my maid Bilhah. Go, sleep with her, and let her give birth to a child that will be laid on my knees, so that through her I too can build a family."

So she gave him Bilhah her slave-girl as his wife, and Ya‘akov went in and slept with her.

(iv) During the wheat harvest season Re'uven went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Le'ah. Rachel said to Le'ah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes [so that I can be fertile]."

When Ya‘akov came in from the field in the evening, Le'ah went out to meet him and said, "You have to come and sleep with me, because I've hired you with my son's mandrakes." So Ya‘akov slept with her that night.

Le'ah said, "God has given me my hire, because I gave my slave-girl to my husband." So she called him Yissakhar [hire, reward].

After Rachel had given birth to Yosef, Ya‘akov said to Lavan, "Send me on my way, so that I can return to my own place, to my own country.

Lavan replied, "As you have said, so be it."

Then he set the rods he had peeled upright in the watering troughs, so that the animals would see them when they came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

Whenever the hardier animals came into heat, Ya‘akov would set up the rods in the watering troughs; so that the animals would see them and conceive in front of them;

But then he heard what Lavan's sons were saying: "Ya‘akov has taken away everything that our father once had. It's from what used to belong to our father that he has gotten so rich."

So Ya‘akov sent for Rachel and Le'ah and had them come to the field where his flock was.

Nevertheless, the wealth which God has taken away from our father has become ours and our children's anyway; so whatever God has told you to do, do."

Now Lavan had gone to shear his sheep, so Rachel stole the household idols that belonged to her father,

So he fled with everything he had: he departed, crossed the [Euphrates] River and set out for the hill-country of Gil‘ad.

When Lavan caught up with Ya‘akov, Ya‘akov had set up camp in the hill-country; so Lavan and his kinsmen set up camp in the hill-country of Gil‘ad.