Jacob, Joseph & Egypt

and Leah saith, `Because of my happiness, for daughters have pronounced me happy;' and she calleth his name Asher.

And Reuben goeth in the days of wheat-harvest, and findeth love-apples in the field, and bringeth them in unto Leah, his mother, and Rachel saith unto Leah, `Give to me, I pray thee, of the love-apples of thy son.'

And she saith to her, `Is thy taking my husband a little thing, that thou hast taken also the love-apples of my son?' and Rachel saith, `Therefore doth he lie with thee to-night, for thy son's love-apples.'

And Jacob cometh in from the field at evening; and Leah goeth to meet him, and saith, `Unto me dost thou come in, for hiring I have hired thee with my son's love-apples;' and he lieth with her during that night.

And God hearkeneth unto Leah, and she conceiveth, and beareth to Jacob a son, a fifth,

and Leah saith, `God hath given my hire, because I have given my maid-servant to my husband;' and she calleth his name Issachar.

And conceive again doth Leah, and she beareth a sixth son to Jacob,

and Leah saith, `God hath endowed me--a good dowry; this time doth my husband dwell with me, for I have borne to him six sons;' and she calleth his name Zebulun;

and afterwards hath she born a daughter, and calleth her name Dinah.

And God remembereth Rachel, and God hearkeneth unto her, and openeth her womb,

and she conceiveth and beareth a son, and saith, `God hath gathered up my reproach;'

and she calleth his name Joseph, saying, `Jehovah is adding to me another son.'

And it cometh to pass, when Rachel hath borne Joseph, that Jacob saith unto Laban, `Send me away, and I go unto my place, and to my land;

give up my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and I go; for thou--thou hast known my service which I have served thee.'

And Laban saith unto him, `If, I pray thee, I have found grace in thine eyes--I have observed diligently that Jehovah doth bless me for thy sake.'

He saith also, `Define thy hire to me, and I give.'

And he saith unto him, `Thou--thou hast known that which I have served thee in , and that which thy substance was with me;

for it is little which thou hast had at my appearance, and it breaketh forth into a multitude, and Jehovah blesseth thee at my coming; and now, when do I make, I also, for mine own house?'

And he saith, `What do I give to thee?' And Jacob saith, `Thou dost not give me anything; if thou do for me this thing, I turn back; I have delight; thy flock I watch;

I pass through all thy flock to-day to turn aside from thence every sheep speckled and spotted, and every brown sheep among the lambs, and speckled and spotted among the goats--and it hath been my hire;

and my righteousness hath answered for me in the day to come, when it cometh in for my hire before thy face; --every one which is not speckled and spotted among my goats, and brown among my lambs--it is stolen with me.'

And Laban saith, `Lo, O that it were according to thy word;'

and he turneth aside during that day the ring-streaked and the spotted he-goats, and all the speckled and the spotted she-goats, every one that hath white in it, and every brown one among the lambs, and he giveth into the hand of his sons,

and setteth a journey of three days between himself and Jacob; and Jacob is feeding the rest of the flock of Laban.

And Jacob taketh to himself a rod of fresh poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut, and doth peel in them white peelings, making bare the white that is on the rods,