Jacob Arrives at Laban's Home

¹Jacob continued on his way and went toward the land of the East.

²Suddenly he came upon a well out in the fields with three flocks of sheep lying around it. The flocks were watered from this well, which had a large stone over the opening.

³Whenever all the flocks came together there, the shepherds would roll the stone back and water them. Then they would put the stone back in place.

⁴Jacob asked the shepherds, “My friends, where are you from?” “From Haran,” they answered.

⁵He asked, “Do you know Laban, grandson of Nahor?” “Yes, we do,” they answered.

⁶“Is he well?” he asked. “He is well,” they answered. “Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with his flock.”

⁷Jacob said, “Since it is still broad daylight and not yet time to bring the flocks in, why don't you water them and take them back to pasture?”

⁸They answered, “We can't do that until all the flocks are here and the stone has been rolled back; then we will water the flocks.”

⁹While Jacob was still talking with them, Rachel arrived with the flock.

¹⁰When Jacob saw Rachel with his uncle Laban's flock, he went to the well, rolled the stone back, and watered the sheep.

¹¹Then he kissed her and began to cry for joy.

¹²He told her, “I am your father's relative, the son of Rebecca.” She ran to tell her father;

¹³and when he heard the news about his nephew Jacob, he ran to meet him, hugged him and kissed him, and brought him into the house. When Jacob told Laban everything that had happened,

¹⁴Laban said, “Yes, indeed, you are my own flesh and blood.” Jacob stayed there a whole month.

Jacob Serves Laban for Rachel and Leah

¹⁵Laban said to Jacob, “You shouldn't work for me for nothing just because you are my relative. How much pay do you want?”

¹⁶Laban had two daughters; the older was named Leah, and the younger Rachel.

¹⁷Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

¹⁸Jacob was in love with Rachel, so he said, “I will work seven years for you, if you will let me marry Rachel.”

¹⁹Laban answered, “I would rather give her to you than to anyone else; stay here with me.”

²⁰Jacob worked seven years so that he could have Rachel, and the time seemed like only a few days to him, because he loved her.

²¹Then Jacob said to Laban, “The time is up; let me marry your daughter.”

²²So Laban gave a wedding feast and invited everyone.

²³But that night, instead of Rachel, he took Leah to Jacob, and Jacob had intercourse with her.

²⁴(Laban gave his slave woman Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maid.)

²⁵Not until the next morning did Jacob discover that it was Leah. He went to Laban and said, “Why did you do this to me? I worked to get Rachel. Why have you tricked me?”

²⁶Laban answered, “It is not the custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older.

²⁷Wait until the week's marriage celebrations are over, and I will give you Rachel, if you will work for me another seven years.”

²⁸Jacob agreed, and when the week of marriage celebrations was over, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

²⁹(Laban gave his slave woman Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maid.)

³⁰Jacob had intercourse with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. Then he worked for Laban another seven years.

The Children Born to Jacob

³¹When the Lord saw that Leah was loved less than Rachel, he made it possible for her to have children, but Rachel remained childless.

³²Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, “The Lord has seen my trouble, and now my husband will love me”; so she named him Reuben.

³³She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “The Lord has given me this son also, because he heard that I was not loved”; so she named him Simeon.

³⁴Once again she became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She said, “Now my husband will be bound more tightly to me, because I have borne him three sons”; so she named him Levi.

³⁵Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, “This time I will praise the Lord”; so she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

¹But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I will die.”

²Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “I can't take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children.”

³She said, “Here is my slave Bilhah; sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. In this way I can become a mother through her.”

⁴So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her.

⁵Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.

⁶Rachel said, “God has judged in my favor. He has heard my prayer and has given me a son”; so she named him Dan.

⁷Bilhah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son.

⁸Rachel said, “I have fought a hard fight with my sister, but I have won”; so she named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah realized that she had stopped having children, she gave her slave Zilpah to Jacob as his wife.

¹⁰Then Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

¹¹Leah said, “I have been lucky”; so she named him Gad.

¹²Zilpah bore Jacob another son,

¹³and Leah said, “How happy I am! Now women will call me happy”; so she named him Asher.

¹⁴During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the fields and found mandrakes, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.”

¹⁵Leah answered, “Isn't it enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you are even trying to take away my son's mandrakes.” Rachel said, “If you will give me your son's mandrakes, you can sleep with Jacob tonight.”

¹⁶When Jacob came in from the fields in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, “You are going to sleep with me tonight, because I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes.” So he had intercourse with her that night.

¹⁷God answered Leah's prayer, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.

¹⁸Leah said, “God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband”; so she named her son Issachar.

¹⁹Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

²⁰She said, “God has given me a fine gift. Now my husband will accept me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.

²¹Later she bore a daughter, whom she named Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel; he answered her prayer and made it possible for her to have children.

²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, “God has taken away my disgrace by giving me a son.

²⁴May the Lord give me another son”; so she named him Joseph.

Jacob's Bargain with Laban

²⁵After the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Let me go, so that I can return home.

²⁶Give me my wives and children that I have earned by working for you, and I will leave. You know how well I have served you.”

²⁷Laban said to him, “Let me say this: I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.

²⁸Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

²⁹Jacob answered, “You know how I have worked for you and how your flocks have prospered under my care.

³⁰The little you had before I came has grown enormously, and the Lord has blessed you wherever I went. Now it is time for me to look out for my own interests.”

³¹“What shall I pay you?” Laban asked. Jacob answered, “I don't want any wages. I will continue to take care of your flocks if you agree to this suggestion:

³²Let me go through all your flocks today and take every black lamb and every spotted or speckled young goat. That is all the wages I want.

³³In the future you can easily find out if I have been honest. When you come to check up on my wages, if I have any goat that isn't speckled or spotted or any sheep that isn't black, you will know that it has been stolen.”

³⁴Laban answered, “Agreed. We will do as you suggest.”

³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that had stripes or spots and all the females that were speckled and spotted or which had white on them; he also removed all the black sheep. He put his sons in charge of them,

³⁶and then went away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flocks.

³⁷Jacob got green branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.

³⁸He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink.

³⁹So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban's flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban's.

⁴¹When the healthy animals were mating, Jacob put the branches in front of them at the drinking troughs, so that they would breed among the branches.

⁴²But he did not put the branches in front of the weak animals. Soon Laban had all the weak animals, and Jacob all the healthy ones.

⁴³In this way Jacob became very wealthy. He had many flocks, slaves, camels, and donkeys.

^1-2Why do you keep tormenting me with words?

³Time after time you insult me and show no shame for the way you abuse me.

⁴Even if I have done wrong, how does that hurt you?

⁵You think you are better than I am, and regard my troubles as proof of my guilt.

⁶Can't you see it is God who has done this? He has set a trap to catch me.

⁷I protest his violence, but no one is listening; no one hears my cry for justice.

⁸God has blocked the way, and I can't get through; he has hidden my path in darkness.

⁹He has taken away all my wealth and destroyed my reputation.

¹⁰He batters me from every side. He uproots my hope and leaves me to wither and die.

¹¹God is angry and rages against me; he treats me like his worst enemy.

¹²He sends his army to attack me; they dig trenches and lay siege to my tent.

¹³God has made my own family forsake me; I am a stranger to those who knew me;

¹⁴my relatives and friends are gone.

¹⁵Those who were guests in my house have forgotten me; my servant women treat me like a stranger and a foreigner.

¹⁶When I call a servant, he doesn't answer— even when I beg him to help me.

¹⁷My wife can't stand the smell of my breath, and my own brothers won't come near me.

¹⁸Children despise me and laugh when they see me.

¹⁹My closest friends look at me with disgust; those I loved most have turned against me.

²⁰My skin hangs loose on my bones; I have barely escaped with my life.

²¹You are my friends! Take pity on me! The hand of God has struck me down.

²²Why must you persecute me the way God does? Haven't you tormented me enough?

²³How I wish that someone would remember my words and record them in a book!

²⁴Or with a chisel carve my words in stone and write them so that they would last forever.

²⁵But I know there is someone in heaven who will come at last to my defense.

²⁶Even after my skin is eaten by disease, while still in this body I will see God.

²⁷I will see him with my own eyes, and he will not be a stranger. My courage failed because you said,

²⁸“How can we torment him?” You looked for some excuse to attack me.

²⁹But now, be afraid of the sword— the sword that brings God's wrath on sin, so that you will know there is one who judges.

^1-2Job, you upset me. Now I'm impatient to answer.

³What you have said is an insult, but I know how to reply to you.

⁴Surely you know that from ancient times, when we humans were first placed on earth,

⁵no wicked people have been happy for long.

⁶They may grow great, towering to the sky, so great that their heads reach the clouds,

⁷but they will be blown away like dust. Those who used to know them will wonder where they have gone.

⁸They will vanish like a dream, like a vision at night, and never be seen again.

⁹The wicked will disappear from the place where they used to live;

¹⁰and their children will make good what they stole from the poor.

¹¹Their bodies used to be young and vigorous, but soon they will turn to dust.

^12-13Evil tastes so good to them that they keep some in their mouths to enjoy its flavor.

¹⁴But in their stomachs the food turns bitter, as bitter as any poison could be.

¹⁵The wicked vomit up the wealth they stole; God takes it back, even out of their stomachs.

¹⁶What the evil people swallow is like poison; it kills them like the bite of a deadly snake.

¹⁷They will not live to see rivers of olive oil or streams that flow with milk and honey.

¹⁸They will have to give up all they have worked for; they will have no chance to enjoy their wealth,

¹⁹because they oppressed and neglected the poor and seized houses someone else had built.

²⁰Their greed is never satisfied.

²¹When they eat, there is nothing left over, but now their prosperity comes to an end.

²²At the height of their success all the weight of misery will crush them.

²³Let them eat all they want! God will punish them in fury and anger.

²⁴When they try to escape from an iron sword, a bronze bow will shoot them down.

²⁵Arrows stick through their bodies; the shiny points drip with their blood, and terror grips their hearts.

²⁶Everything they have saved is destroyed; a fire not lit by human hands burns them and all their family.

²⁷Heaven reveals their sin, and the earth gives testimony against them.

²⁸All their wealth will be destroyed in the flood of God's anger.

²⁹This is the fate of wicked people, the fate that God assigns to them.

⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know.

⁶Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.

⁷Never let yourself think that you are wiser than you are; simply obey the Lord and refuse to do wrong.

⁸If you do, it will be like good medicine, healing your wounds and easing your pains.