Study Desk

Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel."

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.

So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?"

Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

So Jacob went in to Rachel also, and indeed he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served with Laban for another seven years.

Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, "Because the LORD has heard that I am unloved, He has therefore given me this son also." So she named him Simeon.

So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

So Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed." And she named him Naphtali.

Then Leah said, "How fortunate!" So she named him Gad.

Then Leah said, "Happy am I! For women will call me happy." So she named him Asher.

But she said to her, "Is it a small matter for you to take my husband? And would you take my son's mandrakes also?" So Rachel said, "Therefore he may lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."

When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, then 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." So he lay with her that night.

Then Leah said, "God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband." So she named him Issachar.

Then Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.

So she conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my reproach."

So he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:

"So my honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen."

So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.

So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

Moreover, whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might mate by the rods;