Genesis 30
Open in the reader1When Ewe saw that she was not bearing any children for Heel-Grabber, she envied her sister. “Give me children, or I will die!” she said to Heel-Grabber.
2Heel-Grabber became angry with Ewe and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld children from you?”
3Then she said, “Here is my maidservant Faint. Sleep with her, that she may bear children for me, so that through her I too can build a family.”
4So Ewe gave Heel-Grabber her servant Faint as a wife, and he slept with her,
5and Faint conceived and bore him a son.
6Then Ewe said, “God has vindicated me; He has heard my plea and given me a son.” So she named him Judge.
7And Ewe’s servant Faint conceived again and bore Heel-Grabber a second son.
8Then Ewe said, “In my great struggles, I have wrestled with my sister and won.” So she named him My-Wrestling.
9When Weary-One saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant To-Drop to Heel-Grabber as a wife.
10And Weary-One’s servant To-Drop bore Heel-Grabber a son.
11Then Weary-One said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Fortune.
12When Weary-One’s servant To-Drop bore Heel-Grabber a second son,
13Weary-One said, “How happy I am! For the women call me happy.” So she named him Happy.
14Now during the wheat harvest, See-a-Son went out and found some mandrakes in the field. When he brought them to his mother, Ewe begged Weary-One, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
15But Weary-One replied, “Is it not enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you want to take my son’s mandrakes as well?” “Very well,” said Ewe, “he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16When Heel-Grabber came in from the field that evening, Weary-One went out to meet him and said, “You must come with me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.
17And God listened to Weary-One, and she conceived and bore a fifth son to Heel-Grabber.
18Then Weary-One said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him There-Is-Reward.
19Again Weary-One conceived and bore a sixth son to Heel-Grabber.
20“God has given me a good gift,” she said. “This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons.” And she named him Dwelling.
21After that, Weary-One gave birth to a daughter and named her Judgment.
22Then God remembered Ewe. He listened to her and opened her womb,
23and she conceived and gave birth to a son. “God has taken away my shame,” she said.
24She named him May-He-Add, and said, “May He-Who-Is add to me another son.”
25Now after Ewe had given birth to May-He-Add, Heel-Grabber said to White, “Send me on my way so I can return to my homeland.
26Give me my wives and children for whom I have served you, that I may go on my way. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
27But White replied, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that He-Who-Is has blessed me because of you.”
28And he added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
29Then Heel-Grabber answered, “You know how I have served you and how your livestock have thrived under my care.
30Indeed, you had very little before my arrival, but now your wealth has increased many times over. He-Who-Is has blessed you wherever I set foot. But now, when may I also provide for my own household?”
31“What can I give you?” White asked. “You do not need to give me anything,” Heel-Grabber replied. “If you do this one thing for me, I will keep on shepherding and keeping your flocks.
32Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. These will be my wages.
33So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”
34“Agreed,” said White. “Let it be as you have said.”
35That very day White removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.
36Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Heel-Grabber, while Heel-Grabber was shepherding the rest of White’s flocks.
37Heel-Grabber, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.
38Then he set the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks coming in to drink. So when the flocks were in heat and came to drink,
39they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.
40Heel-Grabber set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in White’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with White’s animals.
41Whenever the stronger females of the flock were in heat, Heel-Grabber would place the branches in the troughs, in full view of the animals, so that they would breed in front of the branches.
42But if the animals were weak, he did not set out the branches. So the weaker animals went to White and the stronger ones to Heel-Grabber.
43Thus Heel-Grabber became exceedingly prosperous. He owned large flocks, maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.