Jacob marries leah and Rachel, 1-10. His children by Leah and Rachel and by their handmaids,
11-24. Jacob seeks to leave Laban, 25: but stays on at a certain wage, 26-8. Jacob becomes
rich, 29-30. (Cf. Gen. xxix.1, 17, 18, 21-35; xxx.1-13,17-22, 24, 25, 28, 32, 39, 43; xxxi.1,
2.)
[Chapter 28]
- And he went on his journey, and came to the land of the east, to Laban, the brother of
Rebecca,
and he was with him, and served him for Rachel his daughter one week.
- And in the first
year of the third week [2122 A.M.] he said unto him: 'Give me my wife, for whom I have served
thee seven years '; and
Laban said unto Jacob: 'I will give thee thy wife.'
- And Laban made a feast, and took
Leah his elder daughter, and gave (her) to Jacob as a wife, and gave her Zilpah his handmaid for
an hand-
maid; and Jacob did not know, for he thought that she was Rachel.
- And he went in unto
her, and behold, she was Leah; and Jacob was angry with Laban, and said unto him: 'Why hast
thou dealt thus with me? Did not I serve thee for Rachel and not for Leah? Why hast thou
wronged me?
- Take thy daughter, and I will go; for thou hast done evil to me.' For Jacob loved Rachel
more than Leah; for Leah's eyes were weak, but her form was very handsome; but Rachel had
beautiful
eyes and a beautiful and very handsome form.
- And Laban said to Jacob: 'It is not so
done in our country, to give the younger before the elder.' And it is not right to do this; for thus it
is ordained and written in the heavenly tablets, that no one should give his younger daughter
before the elder; but the elder, one gives first and after her the younger -and the man who does so,
they set down guilt against him in heaven, and none is righteous that does this thing, for this deed
is evil before the
Lord.
- And command thou the children of Israel that they do not this thing; let them
neither take
nor give the younger before they have given the elder, for it is very wicked.
- And Laban
said to Jacob: 'Let the seven days of the feast of this one pass by, and I shall give thee Rachel,
that thou mayst serve me another seven years, that thou mayst pasture my sheep as thou didst in
the former week.'
- And on the day when the seven days of the feast of Leah had passed, Laban
gave Rachel to Jacob, that he might serve him another seven years, and he gave to Rachel Bilhah,
the sister of
Zilpah, as a handmaid.
- And he served yet other seven years for Rachel, for Leah had
been given
to him for nothing.
- And the Lord opened the womb of Leah, and she conceived and
bare Jacob a son, and he called his name Reuben, on the fourteenth day of the ninth month, in the
first year of
the third week. [2122 A.M.]
- But the womb of Rachel was closed, for the Lord saw
that Leah was hated and
Rachel loved.
- And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob
a second son, and he called his name Simeon, on the twenty-first of the tenth month, and in the
third year of this
week. [2124 A.M.]
- And again Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare
him a third son, and he
called his name Levi, in the new moon of the first month in the sixth year of this week.
[2127 A.M.]
- And again Jacob went in unto her, and she conceived, and bare him a fourth son,
and he called his name Judah,
on the fifteenth of the third month, in the first year of the fourth week. [2129 A.M.]
- And on account of all this Rachel envied Leah, for she did not bear, and she said to Jacob: 'Give
me children'; and Jacob
said: 'Have I withheld from thee the fruits of thy womb? Have I forsaken thee?'
- And
when Rachel saw that Leah had borne four sons to Jacob, Reuben and Simeon and Levi and
Judah, she said unto
him: 'Go in unto Bilhah my handmaid, and she will conceive, and bear a son unto me.'
(And she gave (him) Bilhah her handmaid to wife).
- And he went in unto her, and she conceived,
and bare him a son, and he called his name Dan, on the ninth of the sixth month, in the sixth year
of the
third week. [2127 A.M.]
- And Jacob went in again unto Bilhah a second time, and she
conceived, and bare Jacob another son, and Rachel called his name Napthali, on the fifth of the
seventh month, in the
second year of the fourth week. [2130 A.M.]
- And when Leah saw that she had
become sterile and did not bear, she envied Rachel, and she also gave her handmaid Zilpah to
Jacob to wife, and she conceived, and bare a son, and Leah called his name Gad, on the twelfth of
the eighth month, in the third year of
the fourth week. [2131 A.M.]
- And he went in again unto her, and she conceived, and
bare him a second son, and Leah called his name Asher, on the second of the eleventh month, in
the fifth year of the fourth
week. [2133 A.M.]
- And Jacob went in unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare a son,
and she called his name Issachar, on the fourth of the fifth month, in the fourth year of the fourth
week,[2132 A.M.] and she gave him
to a nurse.
- And Jacob went in again unto her, and she conceived, and bare two
(children), a son and a daughter, and she called the name of the son Zabulon, and the name of the
daughter Dinah,
in the seventh of the seventh month, in the sixth year of the fourth week. [2134 A.M.]
- And the Lord was gracious to Rachel, and opened her womb, and she conceived, and bare a son,
and she called his
name Joseph, on the new moon of the fourth month, in the sixth year in this fourth
week. [2134 A.M.]
- And in the days when Joseph was born, Jacob said to Laban: 'Give me my
wives and sons, and let me go to my father Isaac, and let me make me an house; for I have
completed the years in which I
have served thee for thy two daughters, and I will go to the house of my father.'
- And
Laban said to Jacob: 'Tarry with me for thy wages, and pasture my flock for me again, and take
thy wages.'
- And they agreed with one another that he should give him as his wages those of the
lambs and kids
which were born black and spotted and white, (these) were to be his wages.
- And all
the sheep brought forth spotted and speckled and black, variously marked, and they brought forth
again lambs like themselves, and all that were spotted were Jacob's and those which were not
were
Laban's.
- And Jacob's possessions multiplied exceedingly, and he possessed oxen and
sheep and
asses and camels, and menservants and maid-servants.
- And Laban and his sons envied
Jacob, and Laban took back his sheep from him, and he observed him with evil intent.
Chapter: 1 | 2 | 3 |
4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 |
38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 |
44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
50
From The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament
by R.H. Charles, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913
Scanned and Edited by Joshua Williams, Northwest Nazarene College