Daily Bible Reading, Day 9 (Genesis 30-32)

Rachel and Leah Compete for Children

Genesis chapter 30. Then Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, so she became jealous of her sister. And she said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

And she said, Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Go into her, that she may bear on my knees, that through her I too may obtain children. So she gave him her servant woman Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went into her.

And Bilhah conceived, and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has rendered justice to me, and has indeed listened to my voice, and has given me a son. Therefore she named him Dan. And Rachel's servant woman Bilhah conceived again, and bore Jacob a second son.

So Rachel said, With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister, and I have indeed prevailed. And she named him Naphtali. Then Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, so she took her servant woman Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

And Leah's servant woman Zilpah bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, How fortunate! So she named him Gad. And Leah's servant woman Zilpah bore Jacob a second son. Then Leah said, Happy am I, for women will call me happy.

So she named him Asher. And in the days of the weed harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.

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 will lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.

Then Jacob came in from the field in the evening, and 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. And God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

And Leah said, God has given me my wages, because I gave my servant woman to my husband. So she named him Issachar. Then Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. And Leah said, God has gifted me a good gift.

This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons. So she named him Zebulun. Afterwards, she bore a daughter and named her Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.

So she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she named him Joseph, saying, May Yahweh give me another son. Now it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, Send me away that I may go to my own place and to my own land.

Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go, for you yourself know my service which I have rendered you. But Laban said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, stay with me.

I have interpreted an omen that Yahweh has blessed me on your account. And he continued to say, Name me your wages, and I will give it. But he said to him, You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have fared with me.

For you had little before I came, but it has spread out to a multitude, and Yahweh has blessed you at every step of mine. But now when shall I provide for my own household also? 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. Let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted sheep and every black one among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats.

And such shall be my wages. So my righteousness will answer for me later, when you come concerning my wages. Everyone that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.

And Laban said, Behold, let it be according to your word. 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 in to the care of his sons.

And he put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing, the rest of Laban's flocks. Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plain trees, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.

And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the trough, that is, in the watering channels, where the flocks came to drink, and they mated when they came to drink. So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

And Jacob separated the lambs, and he made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban. And he set his own herds apart, and did not set them with Laban's flock. Now it would be, that whenever the stronger of the flock were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the side of the flock in the trough, so that they might mate by the rods.

But when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. So the man spread out exceedingly, and had large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Jacob Returns to Canaan and Laban Pursues Him

Genesis chapter 31. Then Jacob heard the words of Laban's son, saying, Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father, and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth. And Jacob saw the face of Laban, and, behold, it was not friendly toward him as formerly.

Then Yahweh said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kin, and I will be with you. So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field. And he said to them, I see your father's face, that it is not friendly toward me as formerly, but the God of my father has been with me.

You also know that I have served your father with all my power, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. However, God did not allow him to harm me. If he spoke thus, the speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled.

And if he spoke thus, the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped. Thus God has delivered your father's livestock and given them to me. Now it happened at the time when the flock were mating that I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which were mating were striped, speckled, and modeled.

Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob, and I said, Here I am. He said, Lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats which are mating are striped, speckled, and modeled, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now arise, leave this land, and return to the land of your kin. Then Rachel and Leah said to him, Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house?

Are we not counted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and has also entirely consumed our purchase price. Surely all the riches which God has delivered over to us from our father belong to us and our children.

Now then, do whatever God has said to you. Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels. And he drove away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had accumulated, his acquired livestock which he had accumulated in Paddan Aram, in order to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac.

Now Laban had gone to shear his flock. Then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's. And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing. So he fled with all that he had.

And he arose and crossed the river and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. Then it was told to Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled. So he took his relatives with him and pursued him a distance of seven days' journey, and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, Beware, lest you speak to Jacob, either good or bad. So Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead.

Then Laban said to Jacob, What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly and deceive me, and not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with gladness and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre, and not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters?

Now you have acted foolishly. It is in my hand to do evil against you. But the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Beware of speaking, either good or evil, to Jacob. So now you have indeed gone away, because you longed greatly for your father's house.

But why did you steal my gods? Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, because I said, Lest you take your daughters from me by force. The one with whom you find your gods shall not live.

In the presence of our relatives, recognize what is yours among my belongings, and take it for yourself. But Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent, and into the tent of the two maidservants, but he did not find them.

Then he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle, and she sat.

On them.

And Laban fell through all the tent, but did not find them. And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is upon me. So he searched, but did not find the household idols.

Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban. And Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me? Though you have felt through all my goods, what have you found of all your household goods?

Place it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may decide between us.

Two.

These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of beasts I did not bring to you, I bore the loss of it myself.

You required it of my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was. By day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house.

I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the dread of Isaac had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty.

God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, so he rendered the decision last.

Night.

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these daughters of mine, or to their children whom they have.

Borne?

So now come, let us cut a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and.

Me.

Then Jacob took a stone and raised it up as a pillar. And Jacob said to his relatives, Gather stones. So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap. And Laban called it Jagar-sahaduthah, but Jacob called it Galid.

Then Laban said, This heap is a witness between you and me this day, therefore it was named Galid and Mizpah. For he said, May Yahweh watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. If you afflict my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me.

And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set between.

You and me.

This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me for harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us.

So Jacob swore by the dread of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain, and called his relatives to eat a meal, and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain. Then Laban arose early in the morning, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed.

Them.

Jacob Fears Esau and Wrestles at the Jabbok

Then Laban departed, and returned to his place. Genesis 32. Now Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. Then Jacob said when he saw them, This is God's camp. So he named that place Mahanaim.

Then Jacob sent messengers before him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. He also commanded them, saying, Thus you shall say to my lord, to Esau, Thus says your servant Jacob, I have sojourned with Laban, and have been delayed until now.

And I have oxen, and donkeys, and flocks, and male and female slaves, and I have sent to tell my lord that I may find favor in your sight. Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to your brother, to Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two camps. And he said, If Esau comes to the one camp and strikes it, then the camp which remains will escape.

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, O Yahweh, who said to me, Return to your land and to your kin, and I will prosper you. I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the truth which you have shown to your slave, for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps.

Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and strike me down with the mothers and the children. For you said, I will surely prosper you, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.

So he spent the night there. Then he took from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau, two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.

And he gave them into the hand of his servants, every flock by itself, and said to his servants, Pass on before me and put a space between flocks. And he commanded the first one in front, saying, When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?

Then you shall say, These belong to your servant Jacob. It is a present sent to my lord, to Esau. And behold, he also is behind us. Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the flock, saying, After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him.

And you shall say, Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us. For he said, I will appease his face with the present that goes before me, then afterward I will see his face, perhaps he will lift up my face.

So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp. And he arose that same night and took his two wives and his two servant women and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

And he took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent across whatever he had. Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of dawn. And he saw that he had not prevailed against him, so he touched the socket of his thigh, and so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

Then he said, Let me go, for the dawn is breaking. But he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Then he said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.

Then Jacob asked him and said, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. So Jacob named the place Penuel, for he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been delivered.

And the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. Therefore, to this day, the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip.