1 Leah already had 4 kids with Jacob, but her sister Rachel didn’t have any kids. So Rachel got jealous of Leah. Then Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me kids. If you don’t, I will be so sad that I will die.”

2 Then Jacob got angry with Rachel. Jacob said, “God is the one that stopped you from having kids. I can’t change that. I’m not God.”

3 So Rachel said, “All right, this is what you can do. Look, here is Bilhah, the woman that works for me. I want you to sleep with her, so that she will have babies. Bilhah belongs to me, so if she has babies, those babies will belong to me too. They will be just like my own kids.”

4 Then Rachel gave Bilhah to Jacob, and Bilhah became Jacob’s wife. And Jacob slept with Bilhah, like a man sleeps with his wife. 5 Then Bilhah had a baby boy. He was another son for Jacob. 6 Then Rachel said, “God has been very good and fair to me. He heard me ask for kids, and he gave me a son.” And Rachel named that baby Dan. That name means he was fair.

7 Later on, Jacob and Bilhah slept together again, like married people do. Then Bilhah had another baby boy. He was the 2nd son that she had for Jacob. 8 Then Rachel said, “I used to be jealous of my sister Leah, because she had kids and I didn’t. But now I have 2 sons. It’s like I had a big fight with Leah, and I won.” And Rachel named that baby Naphtali. That name means my big fight.

9 Leah wanted to have more kids, but no babies grew inside her. So she thought, “I will get Jacob to marry my working woman Zilpah, so that she will have babies. Zilpah belongs to me, so if she has babies, those babies will belong to me too. They will be just like my own kids.” So Leah gave Zilpah to Jacob, and she became Jacob’s wife. 10 Jacob slept with Zilpah, like a man sleeps with his wife, and she had a baby boy. He was another son for Jacob. 11 Then Leah said, “I’m really lucky.” And Leah named that baby Gad. That name means lucky.

12 Later on, Zilpah had another baby boy. He was another son for Jacob. 13 Then Leah said, “I’m so happy. I reckon other women will say, ‘Leah is happy now.’ ” And Leah named that baby Asher. That name means happy.

14 One day, Leah’s oldest son Reuben went to the place where the wheat plants grow. At that time, some work-men were cutting down those wheat plants, to get the food from them. And Reuben found some special plants, called mandrakes, in that place. So Reuben took those mandrakes, and he gave them to his mother Leah. But Leah’s sister Rachel, she saw those mandrakes, and she wanted to have them. Rachel thought, “If I eat a mandrake, maybe I will have a baby.” You see, mandrakes were like bush medicine. People thought that if a woman eats a mandrake, it will help her have a baby.

So Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of those mandrakes that your son found.”

15 Then Leah got angry with Rachel. She said, “Listen, I married Jacob first, but he loved you and married you. It’s like you took my husband away from me. That’s really bad. And now, you want to take my son’s mandrakes too. No, you can’t have them.”

But Rachel still wanted those mandrakes. So she said to Leah, “All right, if you give me your son’s mandrakes, you can sleep with Jacob tonight.” And Leah agreed.

16 Later on, while the sun was going down, Jacob finished working outside, and he came back home. Leah went out to meet Jacob, and she said, “You have to sleep with me tonight. You see, my son found some mandrakes, but I gave those mandrakes to Rachel, so that I can sleep with you. It’s like I paid for you with those mandrakes.” So that night, Jacob slept with Leah, like a man sleeps with his wife.

17 God was good to Leah. He knew that Leah wanted to have more kids. So after Jacob slept with Leah, God made a baby start growing inside her. Later on, Leah had that baby, and it was a boy. He was another son for Jacob, and he was son number 5 for Leah. 18 Then Leah said, “I reckon God is happy with me, because I let Jacob sleep with my working woman Zilpah. And now, God let me have another baby. It’s like God is paying me for that good thing I did.” And Leah named that baby Issachar. That name means pay.

19 Later on, Leah had another baby boy, so Jacob had another son. He was son number 6 for Leah. 20 Then Leah said, “God gave me lots of sons. They are like a really special present from God. Now I reckon my husband Jacob will respect me, because I gave him 6 sons.” And Leah named that baby Zebulun. That name means respect.

21 Later on, Leah had a baby girl, and Leah named that baby Dinah.

22-23 But Leah’s sister Rachel still wanted to have her own kids. And God was good to Rachel, and he gave her what she wanted. Before this time, Rachel didn’t have any kids, but then God let a baby start growing inside her. Rachel had a baby boy. Then Rachel said, “I used to feel shame, because I didn’t have any kids. But now, God gave me a son, so I don’t feel shame any more.” 24 And Rachel named that baby Joseph. That name means he will give more. And Rachel said, “I’m asking God to give me another son.”

25 After Rachel had that baby, Jacob talked to his uncle Laban. Jacob said, “Let me go back to my home country. 26 And let me take my wives and my kids. You know, I worked really hard for you so that I could marry your daughters. So now, let me take them back to my home country.”

27 But Laban said, “Please listen to me. I’m asking you to stay here with me. You see, Yahweh your God is only good to me when you are here. I learned that by magic. 28 If you stay here, I will pay you to work for me. Just tell me how much you want, and I will pay you.”

29-30 Jacob said to Laban, “Look, you know that I worked really hard for you. When I came here, you only had a few animals. I looked after those animals for you, and they kept on having lots of babies, so now you have lots and lots of animals. Yes, Yahweh my God was good to you all the time that I worked for you. But I don’t have any animals myself. So now it’s time for me to look after myself and my own family.”

31 Then Laban said, “All right, how much do you want me to pay you?”

But Jacob said, “I don’t want you to pay me. I will keep on looking after your animals, if you will do this one thing for me. 32 Today, let me go to the place where you keep your sheep and goats, and let me take some of those sheep and goats for myself. You know, most of your sheep have white wool, and most of your goats have black wool. I will not take any of those white sheep or any of those black goats. But you have some funny coloured sheep and goats too. You have some spotty goats and some black sheep. I will take those funny coloured sheep and goats, and they will belong to me. They will be my pay. 33 Later on, those sheep and goats will have babies, and those babies will have funny coloured wool too. So they will belong to me. I promise I will never steal any white sheep or any black goats from you. Whenever you come and look at my sheep and goats, you will see that I only have spotty goats and black sheep. Then you will know that I kept my promise.”

34 Then Laban said, “All right, I agree. You can take all the funny coloured sheep and goats, and they will belong to you.”

35 But that same day, Laban cheated Jacob. Laban went to the place where he kept his sheep and goats, and he took all the funny coloured ones away. He took the stripy goats and the spotty goats, any that had white bits on their wool, and he took all the black sheep.

Then Laban gave those sheep and goats to his sons, to take them far away. 36 So his sons walked with those sheep and goats for 3 days, and then they stopped and camped. But Jacob stayed at Laban’s camp, and he looked after Laban’s other sheep and goats. All those sheep were white, and all those goats were black, and they belonged to Laban, just like he agreed with Jacob. So Jacob didn’t have any sheep or goats for himself.

37 Then Jacob cut off some young green branches from 3 sorts of trees that were in that place. Those trees were called poplar trees, almond trees, and plane trees. Then Jacob pulled off some of the bark that was on the outside of those branches, so that he could see white bits under the bark. He did that so that those branches looked like they had spots on them. 38 Then Jacob put those spotty branches in the place where the sheep and goats came to drink water. And whenever the sheep and goats came to that place to drink water, the males and females joined together to make babies. 39 So whenever the males and females did that, those spotty branches were there in front of them. Later on, when their baby animals were born, they had spots and stripes on their wool.

40 Jacob did another thing with Laban’s animals too. He took the white sheep, and he got those sheep to look at the stripy animals and the black animals.

After the babies were born, Jacob split up the animals. He took all the funny coloured animals for himself, just like he agreed with Laban. But all the white sheep and black goats belonged to Laban. And Jacob didn’t mix them together.

41 Jacob wanted his sheep and goats to be stronger than Laban’s, so he wanted the strong babies to be born with funny coloured wool. So whenever the strong sheep and strong goats came to drink water, Jacob put the spotty branches there, and the strong males and strong females joined together to make babies in front of those branches. Later on, when those babies were born, they were strong too, and they had funny coloured wool, so they belonged to Jacob.

42 But when the weak sheep and weak goats came to that place, Jacob didn’t put those branches in front of them. Then the weak sheep had white babies, and the weak goats had black babies, so they belonged to Laban. But the strong baby sheep and goats, they had funny coloured wool, so they belonged to Jacob.

43 In that way, Jacob got lots and lots of sheep and goats, and he became very rich. He also owned lots of men and women that worked for him, and lots of camels and donkeys.

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