Genesis 28

• 1. So Isaac called for Jacob, blessed him, and said, "Do not marry any of these Canaanite women.
• 2. Instead, go at once to Paddan-aram, to the house of your grandfather Bethuel, and marry one of your uncle Laban's daughters.
• 3. May God Almighty bless you and give you many children. And may your descendants become a great assembly of nations!
• 4. May God pass on to you and your descendants the blessings he promised to Abraham. May you own this land where we now are foreigners, for God gave it to Abraham."
• 5. So Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to stay with his uncle Laban, his mother's brother, the son of Bethuel the Aramean.
• 6. Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-aram to find a wife, and that he had warned Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman.
• 7. He also knew that Jacob had obeyed his parents and gone to Paddan-aram.
• 8. It was now very clear to Esau that his father despised the local Canaanite women.
• 9. So he visited his uncle Ishmael's family and married one of Ishmael's daughters, in addition to the wives he already had. His new wife's name was Mahalath. She was the sister of Nebaioth and the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son.
• 10. Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.
• 11. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone for a pillow and lay down to sleep.
• 12. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from earth to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down on it.
• 13. At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, "I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I will give it to you and your descendants.
• 14. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will cover the land from east to west and from north to south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
• 15. What's more, I will be with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. I will someday bring you safely back to this land. I will be with you constantly until I have finished giving you everything I have promised."
• 16. Then Jacob woke up and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it."
• 17. He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God--the gateway to heaven!"
• 18. The next morning he got up very early. He took the stone he had used as a pillow and set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.
• 19. He named the place Bethel--"house of God"--though the name of the nearby village was Luz.
• 20. Then Jacob made this vow: "If God will be with me and protect me on this journey and give me food and clothing,
• 21. and if he will bring me back safely to my father, then I will make the LORD my God.
• 22. This memorial pillar will become a place for worshiping God, and I will give God a tenth of everything he gives me."

Genesis 29

• 1. Jacob hurried on, finally arriving in the land of the east.
• 2. He saw in the distance three flocks of sheep lying in an open field beside a well, waiting to be watered. But a heavy stone covered the mouth of the well.
• 3. It was the custom there to wait for all the flocks to arrive before removing the stone. After watering them, the stone would be rolled back over the mouth of the well.
• 4. Jacob went over to the shepherds and asked them, "Where do you live?At Haran," they said.
• 5. "Do you know a man there named Laban, the grandson of Nahor?Yes, we do," they replied.
• 6. "How is he?" Jacob asked. "He's well and prosperous. Look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep."
• 7. "Why don't you water the flocks so they can get back to grazing?" Jacob asked. "They'll be hungry if you stop so early in the day."
• 8. "We don't roll away the stone and begin the watering until all the flocks and shepherds are here," they replied.
• 9. As this conversation was going on, Rachel arrived with her father's sheep, for she was a shepherd.
• 10. And because she was his cousin, the daughter of his mother's brother, and because the sheep were his uncle's, Jacob went over to the well and rolled away the stone and watered his uncle's flock.
• 11. Then Jacob kissed Rachel, and tears came to his eyes.
• 12. He explained that he was her cousin on her father's side, her aunt Rebekah's son. So Rachel quickly ran and told her father, Laban.
• 13. As soon as Laban heard about Jacob's arrival, he rushed out to meet him and greeted him warmly. Laban then brought him home, and Jacob told him his story.
• 14. "Just think, my very own flesh and blood!" Laban exclaimed. After Jacob had been there about a month,
• 15. Laban said to him, "You shouldn't work for me without pay just because we are relatives. How much do you want?"
• 16. Now Laban had two daughters: Leah, who was the oldest, and her younger sister, Rachel.
• 17. Leah had pretty eyes, but Rachel was beautiful in every way, with a lovely face and shapely figure.
• 18. Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, "I'll work for you seven years if you'll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife."
• 19. "Agreed!" Laban replied. "I'd rather give her to you than to someone outside the family."
• 20. So Jacob spent the next seven years working to pay for Rachel. But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days.
• 21. Finally, the time came for him to marry her. "I have fulfilled my contract," Jacob said to Laban. "Now give me my wife so we can be married."
• 22. So Laban invited everyone in the neighborhood to celebrate with Jacob at a wedding feast.
• 23. That night, when it was dark, Laban took Leah to Jacob, and he slept with her.
• 24. And Laban gave Leah a servant, Zilpah, to be her maid.
• 25. But when Jacob woke up in the morning--it was Leah! "What sort of trick is this?" Jacob raged at Laban. "I worked seven years for Rachel. What do you mean by this trickery?"
• 26. "It's not our custom to marry off a younger daughter ahead of the firstborn," Laban replied.
• 27. "Wait until the bridal week is over, and you can have Rachel, too--that is, if you promise to work another seven years for me."
• 28. So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too.
• 29. And Laban gave Rachel a servant, Bilhah, to be her maid.
• 30. So Jacob slept with Rachel, too, and he loved her more than Leah. He then stayed and worked the additional seven years.
• 31. But because Leah was unloved, the LORD let her have a child, while Rachel was childless.
• 32. So Leah became pregnant and had a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, "The LORD has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me."
• 33. She soon became pregnant again and had another son. She named him Simeon, for she said, "The LORD heard that I was unloved and has given me another son."
• 34. Again she became pregnant and had a son. She named him Levi, for she said, "Surely now my husband will feel affection for me, since I have given him three sons!"
• 35. Once again she became pregnant and had a son. She named him Judah, for she said, "Now I will praise the LORD!" And then she stopped having children.

Genesis 30

• 1. When Rachel saw that she wasn't having any children, she became jealous of her sister. "Give me children, or I'll die!" she exclaimed to Jacob.
• 2. Jacob flew into a rage. "Am I God?" he asked. "He is the only one able to give you children!"
• 3. Then Rachel told him, "Sleep with my servant, Bilhah, and she will bear children for me."
• 4. So Rachel gave him Bilhah to be his wife, and Jacob slept with her.
• 5. Bilhah became pregnant and presented him with a son.
• 6. Rachel named him Dan, for she said, "God has vindicated me! He has heard my request and given me a son."
• 7. Then Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son.
• 8. Rachel named him Naphtali, for she said, "I have had an intense struggle with my sister, and I am winning!"
• 9. Meanwhile, Leah realized that she wasn't getting pregnant anymore, so she gave her servant, Zilpah, to Jacob to be his wife.
• 10. Soon Zilpah presented him with another son.
• 11. Leah named him Gad, for she said, "How fortunate I am!"
• 12. Then Zilpah produced a second son,
• 13. and Leah named him Asher, for she said, "What joy is mine! The other women will consider me happy indeed!"
• 14. One day during the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes growing in a field and brought the roots to his mother, Leah. Rachel begged Leah to give some of them to her.
• 15. But Leah angrily replied, "Wasn't it enough that you stole my husband? Now will you steal my son's mandrake roots, too?" Rachel said, "I will let him sleep with you tonight in exchange for the mandrake roots."
• 16. So that evening, as Jacob was coming home from the fields, Leah went out to meet him. "You must sleep with me tonight!" she said. "I have paid for you with some mandrake roots my son has found." So Jacob slept with her.
• 17. And God answered her prayers. She became pregnant again and gave birth to her fifth son.
• 18. She named him Issachar, for she said, "God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband as a wife."
• 19. Then she became pregnant again and had a sixth son.
• 20. She named him Zebulun, for she said, "God has given me good gifts for my husband. Now he will honor me, for I have given him six sons."
• 21. Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
• 22. Then God remembered Rachel's plight and answered her prayers by giving her a child.
• 23. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. "God has removed my shame," she said.
• 24. And she named him Joseph, for she said, "May the LORD give me yet another son."
• 25. Soon after Joseph was born to Rachel, Jacob said to Laban, "I want to go back home.
• 26. Let me take my wives and children, for I have earned them from you, and let me be on my way. You know I have fully paid for them with my service to you."
• 27. "Please don't leave me," Laban replied, "for I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because you are here.
• 28. How much do I owe you? Whatever it is, I'll pay it."
• 29. Jacob replied, "You know how faithfully I've served you through these many years, and how your flocks and herds have grown.
• 30. You had little indeed before I came, and your wealth has increased enormously. The LORD has blessed you from everything I do! But now, what about me? When should I provide for my own family?"
• 31. "What wages do you want?" Laban asked again. Jacob replied, "Don't give me anything at all. Just do one thing, and I'll go back to work for you.
• 32. Let me go out among your flocks today and remove all the sheep and goats that are speckled or spotted, along with all the dark-colored sheep. Give them to me as my wages.
• 33. This will make it easy for you to see whether or not I have been honest. If you find in my flock any white sheep or goats that are not speckled, you will know that I have stolen them from you."
• 34. "All right," Laban replied. "It will be as you have said."
• 35. But that very day Laban went out and removed all the male goats that were speckled and spotted, the females that were speckled and spotted with any white patches, and all the dark-colored sheep. He placed them in the care of his sons,
• 36. and they took them three days' distance from where Jacob was. Meanwhile, Jacob stayed and cared for Laban's flock.
• 37. Now Jacob took fresh shoots from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off strips of the bark to make white streaks on them.
• 38. Then he set up these peeled branches beside the watering troughs so Laban's flocks would see them as they came to drink, for that was when they mated.
• 39. So when the flocks mated in front of the white-streaked branches, all of their offspring were streaked, speckled, and spotted.
• 40. Jacob added them to his own flock, thus separating the lambs from Laban's flock. Then at mating time, he turned the flocks toward the streaked and dark-colored rams in Laban's flock. This is how he built his flock from Laban's.
• 41. Whenever the stronger females were ready to mate, Jacob set up the peeled branches in front of them.
• 42. But he didn't do this with the weaker ones, so the weaker lambs belonged to Laban, and the stronger ones were Jacob's.
• 43. As a result, Jacob's flocks increased rapidly, and he became very wealthy, with many servants, camels, and donkeys.

New Living Translation: 10 of 324 days.