The Bible - Genesis - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: The Sons of Jacob

Seeing all the children Leah gives birth too really has Rachel jealous. She goes to Jacob and says simply, “Give me children, or I shall die.” Jacob responds in a rage that it’s really not within his control; God’s the one that has denied you children. Rachel responds by asking him to have sex with the maid, Bilhah. Bilhah thus bore sons Dan and Naphtali. During all this, Leah had stopped having children so she tells Jacob to have sex with her own maid, Zilpah. Zilpah bears Gad and Asher.

Years later, Reuben (Jacob’s eldest, by Leah) finds some mandrake root. The JSB reports mandrake is an aphrodisiac and the NASB that it induces pregnancy directly. Whatever the intended use, Rachel finds out about the mandrake and asks politely if she can have some. Leah replies snidely in the negative and says she’ll only give Rachel the mandrake if Jacob spends the night in her bed rather than Rachel’s. Rachel agrees and as a consequence of her night with Jacob, Leah bears a fifth son, Issachar and later a sixth son Zebulun and finally a daughter Dinah. During all this, God also remembered Rachel and she bore a son, Joseph.

After all this fruitful multiplying, Jacob asks Laban for leave to return to his homeland. Laban hesitates, he knows that he has profited by Jacob’s presence because of the Lord’s blessing. Laban again asks what wages Jacob would demand to remain in his service. Jacob replies that he demands no wages but that when he does leave, that he be allowed to take every dark-colored sheep and every spotted goat from his flock. Laban deviously agrees to this arrangement.

Leaving Jacob, Laban arranges for every sheep and goat matching Jacob’s description to be removed to the care of his sons miles away. The intention being, of course, to make sure Jacob gets nothing on his departure. Jacob, however, has a plan of his own. It was believed in these days that the offspring of an animal would resemble whatever the parents saw at the time of conception. So Jacob placed white shoots at the place where the normally dark-colored goats mated and arranged for the sheep to see other dark-colored animals while they were mating. By this arrangement, Jacob produced a mighty herd of animals with the appropriate coloration.

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