1. ANᴅ Rachel seing she was vnfruitful, enuied her sister, and said to her husband:
Geue me children, otherwise I shal dye.
2. With whom Iacob being angrie answered: Am I as God, who hath depriued thee of the fruite
of thy wombe?
3. But she said: I haue here my seruant Bala: Companie with her, that she may beare vpon
my knees, and I may haue children of her.
4. And she gaue him Bala vnto mariage: who,
5. when her husband had compained with her, conceaued and bare a sonne.
6. And Rachel said: Our Lord hath iudged for me, and hath heard my voice, geuing me a
sonne. and therfore she called his name, Dan.
7. And againe Bala conceauing bare an other,
8. for whom Rachel said: God hath compared me with my sister, and I haue preuailed: and
she called him Nepthali.
9. Lia perceauing that she had left bearing, deliuered Zelpha her handmaid to her husband.
10. Who conceauing and bringing forth a sonne,
11. she said: Happely. And therfore called his name Gad.
12. Zelpha also bare an other.
13. And Lia said: This is for my blessednes: for wemen wil cal me blessed. Therfore she
called him, Aser.
14. And Ruben going forth in the time of wheat haruest into the field, found mandragores:
which he brought to his mother Lia. And Rachel said: Geue me part of thy sonnes mandragores.
15. She answered: Doest thou thinke it a smal matter, that thou hast taken my husband from
me, vnlesse thou take also my sonnes mandragores? Rachel said: For thy sonnes mandragores let him
sleepe with thee this night.
16. And when Iacob returned at euen from the field, Lia went out to meete him, and said:
Companie with me, because with wages I haue hired thee for my sonnes mandragores. And he slept
with her that night.
17. And God heard her prayers: and she conceaued and bare the fifth sonne,
18. and said: God hath geuen me a reward, because I gaue my handmaid to my husband. And
she called his name Issachar.
19. Againe Lia conceauing, bare the sixt sonne,
20. and said: God hath endowed me with a good dowrie: this turne also my husband wil be
with me, for because I haue borne him six sonnes, and therfore she called his name, Zabulon.
21. After whom she bare a daughter, named Dina.
22. Our Lord also remembring Rachel, heard her, and opened her wombe.
23. Who conceaued, and bare a sonne, saying: God hath taken away my reproch.
24. And she called his name, Ioseph, saying: Our Lord adde to me an other sonne.
25. And when Ioseph was borne, Iacob said to his father in lawe: Dismisse me that I may
returne into my countrie, and to my land.
26. Geue me my wiues, and my children, for whom I haue serued thee, that I may depart:
thou knowest the seruice that I haue serued thee.
27. Laban said to him: Let me finde grace in thy sight: I haue learned by experience,
that God hath blessed me for thy sake:
28. appoint thee wages which I shal geue thee.
29. But he answered: Thou knowest how I haue serued thee, and how great thy possession
hath benne in my hands.
30. Thou hadest a smal thing before I came to thee, and now thou art made rich: and our
Lord hath blessed thee at my comming in. It is reason therfore that once I prouide also for mine
owne house.
31. And Laban said: What shal I geue thee? But he said: I wil nothing: but if thou wilt
doe that which I demande, I wil fede, and kepe thy sheepe again.
32. Goe round about al thy flockes, and separate al the shepe of diuers colours, of
speckled flyse: and what soeuer shal be russet and spotted, and of diuers colours, aswel in the
shepe, as in the goates, shal be my wages.
33. And my iustice shal answer for me to morowe, before thee when the time of the bargaine
shal come: and al that shal not be of diuers colours, and spotted, and russet, aswel in the
shepe as in the goates, shal accuse me of theft.
34. And Laban said: I like wel that thou demandest.
35. And he separated the same day the shee goates, and the shepe, and the he goates, and
the rammes of diuers colours, and spotted: and al the flocke of one coloure, that is of white
and blacke flyse, he deliuered in the hand of his sonnes.
36. And he put a space of three dayes iourney betwixt him and his sonne in lawe, who fed
the rest of his flocke.
37. Iacob therfore taking grene roddes of the poplare, and of the almond, and of
the plaine trees, in part pilled them: and when the barkes were taken of, in the parts that
were pilled, there appeared whitnes: but the parts that were whole, remayned grene: and by this
meanes the colour was made diuers.
38. And he put them in the troughes, where the water was poured out: that when the
flockes should come to drinke, they might haue the roddes before their eyes, and in the sight
of them conceaue.
39. And it came to passe that in the verie heate of the ramming, the shepe beheld the
roddes, and brought forth spotted, and of diuers colours, and speckled.
40. And Iacob diuided the flocke, and put the roddes in the troughes before the eyes of
the rammes: and al the white and the blacke were Labans: and the rest, Iacobs, when the flockes
were separated one from the other.
41. Therfore when the ewes went to ramme, in the prime time, Iacob put the roddes in the
troughes of water before the eyes of the rammes, and of the ewes, that in looking vpon them they
might conceaue:
42. but when the later comming was, and the last conceauing, he did not put them. And
those that were late warde, became Labans: and they of the prime time, Iacobs.
43. And the man was enriched beyond measure, and he had manie flockes, wemen seruantes
and men seruants, camels and asses.