Genesis 30

Genesis 30:1

It all begins with God An EasyEnglish Bible Version and Commentary (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of Genesis www.easyenglish.info Marie Wetherill and Keith Simons This commentary has been through Advanced Checking.

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Chapter 30 Jacob’s family v1 Rachel saw that she was not having any children for Jacob. So then she was jealous of her sister. Rachel said to Jacob, ‘Give children to me, otherwise I shall die.’

v2 Jacob was very angry with Rachel. And he said, ‘I am not God! You have not had children because God has prevented it.’

v3 Then Rachel said, ‘Here is my maid Bilhah. Have sex with her. So then she can have a child for me. And so then I shall have children.’

v4 So Rachel gave Bilhah to Jacob as a wife. And Jacob had sex with her. v5 Bilhah became *pregnant and she had a baby son. v6 Then Rachel said, ‘God has been fair to me. He heard my voice and he has given a son to me.’ So she called the son Dan.

v7 Rachel’s maid Bilhah became *pregnant again. And she had another baby son for Jacob. v8 Then Rachel said, ‘I have struggled hard with my sister and I have won.’ So she called that son Naphtali.

v9 Leah saw that she (Leah) was not having children any longer. So then she took her maid Zilpah. And she gave Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. v10 Then Leah’s maid Zilpah had a baby son for Jacob. v11 Leah said, ‘We are lucky.’ So she called the son Gad.

v12 Leah’s maid Zilpah had another son for Jacob. v13 Leah said, ‘I am very happy. The women will call me happy.’ So she called that son Asher.

v14 It was the time when people harvested wheat. Reuben went and he found *mandrakes in the field. He took them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, ‘Please give some of your son’s *mandrakes to me.’

v15 But Leah replied, ‘You have already taken away my husband. Now you want to take away my son’s *mandrakes too!’

Rachel said, ‘Jacob can have sex with you tonight, if you will give your son’s *mandrakes to me.’

v16 Jacob was coming in from the field in the evening. Then Leah went out to meet him. And she said, ‘You must have sex with me tonight. I have hired you with my son’s *mandrakes.’ So Jacob had sex with Leah that night.

v17 God heard Leah and she became *pregnant. She had her 5th son for Jacob. v18 Leah said, ‘God has given my reward to me, because I gave my maid to my husband.’ So she called her son Issachar.

v19 Leah became *pregnant again. And she had her 6th son for Jacob. v20 Then Leah said, ‘God has given a good reward to me. Now my husband will give honour to me. I have had 6 sons for him.’ So she called that son Zebulun.

v21 After that, Leah had a baby daughter. And she called her Dinah.

v22 Then God *blessed Rachel. God listened to her. And he made her able to have children. v23 Rachel became *pregnant and she had a baby son. She said, ‘God has taken away my shame.’ v24 Rachel called her son Joseph. And she said, ‘Let the *Lord add another son to me!’

v25 When Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said this to Laban: ‘Send me away to my own home, to my own country. v26 Give my wives and my children to me. I have worked hard for them. Please let me go. You know how well I have served you.’

v27 Laban replied, ‘I have grown rich and the *Lord has *blessed me. I have learned that it has happened because of you. v28 Please name the wages that you want. And I will give them.’

v29 Jacob said, ‘You yourself know how hard I have worked for you. Your *cattle have grown fat and healthy in my care. v30 You had few things before I came. But now you have many things. The *Lord has *blessed you by means of everything that I have done here. Now I need to take care of my own *household.’

v31 Laban replied, ‘What shall I give to you?’

Jacob said, ‘You need not give anything to me. But please do this for me. I will take care of your *flock and I will feed it. v32 But please let me go through all your *flock today. Let me remove all those sheep and goats that have *speckles and spots. And let me remove the black *lambs. Those will be my wages. v33 Afterwards you can prove that I have not cheated you. You can prove that I have not taken more than I should. All my goats will have *speckles or spots. And my *lambs will be black. If there are any other animals, then I will have stolen them.’

v34 Laban said, ‘That is good. I agree to that.’ v35 But that same day, Laban took away the male goats that had stripes and spots. And he took away the female goats that had *speckles and spots. Laban took away all the animals that had any white on them. And he took away every *lamb that was black. Laban told his sons to look after them. v36 And he told his sons to go away from Jacob, so that the journey between them and Jacob took three days. Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s *flock.

v37 Jacob then took fresh branches from *poplar trees, *almond trees and *plane trees. And he *peeled the branches so that they had white stripes. v38 He took the branches that he had *peeled. And he placed them in the *troughs that contained water. The water was for the animals to drink. So when the *flocks came to drink, those branches were in front of them. And the animals mated when they came to drink. v39 So they mated in front of the branches.

The *flocks then gave birth to *kids that had stripes, *speckles and spots. v40 Jacob separated the *lambs. In Laban’s *flocks, there were animals with stripes. And there were black sheep. Jacob put his own *flocks so that their faces were towards those particular animals. Then Jacob put his own *flocks aside. He separated them from Laban’s *flock. v41 Some animals that came to mate were stronger and healthier.

Then Jacob took the branches that he had *peeled. And he put those branches in the *troughs of water. So the branches were in front of those stronger animals. And those animals saw the branches as they mated among them. v42 Jacob did not put up those branches when the weaker animals were mating. Therefore the weaker animals were Laban’s and the stronger ones were Jacob’s. v43 So Jacob became extremely rich. He had large *flocks.

He had male and female servants. And he had camels and *donkeys.

Chapter 30 continues the account of the birth of Jacob’s sons. Jacob’s wives persuaded Jacob to accept their maids as *concubines. So, Jacob had children by 4 different women. Rachel, whom Jacob really loved, was the last of these women have babies.

Afterwards, Jacob wanted to leave Laban. God had promised Jacob that Jacob would return home (Genesis 28:15). Perhaps Jacob wanted to bring up his sons in the country that God had promised to their *descendants. But Laban persuaded Jacob to wait. Laban offered to pay Jacob for his work. They agreed which animals would belong to Jacob in the future. And so, Jacob became wealthy. Notes on the verses Verses 1-2 Jacob’s wives could have shared the joys that their husband and children gave to them. Instead, they were jealous of each other. And as a result, there was trouble among Jacob’s sons later. Rachel became sad when she could not have children. She even blamed Jacob.

Verses 3-5 It was the custom for a man to accept his wife’s maid as a *concubine. Abraham did this in Genesis 16:2-4. We do not know whether Jacob wanted to follow this custom. But Rachel was desperate. She could not have her own children. So, she wanted Bilhah to have children that Rachel could look after, with her.

Verse 6 The name ‘Dan’ means ‘God is my judge’. That is, God has been fair to me.

Verse 8 ‘Naphtali’ probably means a ‘fight’ or a ‘struggle’. It is a rare word. And so we are not sure what it means. Some people think that it means ‘God’s fight’. The ‘fight’ or ‘struggle’ might mean these things:

1. a powerful fight or struggle;

2. a struggle in the place where God had put her; that is, a struggle with her sister as Jacob’s other wife;

3. a struggle with God when she was asking him to give children to her; that is, a struggle in prayer.

Verse 9-10 We do not know whether Jacob wanted another *concubine. Jacob did not really love Leah. Laban forced Jacob to marry her. But Jacob was always fair to Leah. So, he accepted her maid too.

Verse 11 ‘Gad’ means ‘good luck’.

Verse 13 ‘Asher’ means ‘happy’.

Verse 14 *Mandrakes were plants. People thought that those plants could help a person to love his or her partner. They thought that the plants could help *barren women. The plants would help such women to become *pregnant. Rachel had never been *pregnant. And she was desperate to have children. This is why she wanted the *mandrakes.

Verses 15-17 It is clear that Jacob spent very little time with Leah. Leah very much wanted Jacob’s love and Rachel very much wanted children. But it was Leah who had another son after this event.

Verse 18 ‘Issachar’ may mean ‘Let God be *merciful’. Or it may mean a ‘hired man’.

Verse 20 Zebulun probably means ‘honour’.

Verse 21 People did not usually include daughters in lists of people’s children. Later, however, Dinah was an important part of the story about this family. ‘Dinah’ meant ‘judgement’.

Verses 22-23 At last, Rachel had a son. She always wanted children. But she had to wait for a long time.

Verse 24 ‘Joseph’ means ‘Let the *Lord add.’ Rachel was praying for another son. And, in the end, Rachel did have another son. But that was not a happy event (Genesis 35:16-19).

Verses 25-26 Jacob had stayed with Laban for 14 years. During that time, Jacob worked in order to pay for his marriages to Leah and Rachel. The time that he agreed to work had ended. So, Jacob wanted to return home to the country that God promised to him. He probably also wanted to introduce his wives and children to his mother.

Verses 27-28 Laban knew that God had made him (Laban) rich because of Jacob. And so Laban did not want Jacob to go. Laban offered wages in order to keep Jacob there.

Verses 29-34 A *shepherd’s wages were sometimes one from every four animals that were born. Laban thought that the animals with marks would be fewer than that. We do not know how *speckles and spots were different. The sizes of the marks were probably different.

Laban and Jacob agreed which animals would belong to Jacob. The animals with marks would belong to Jacob. The animals without marks would belong to Laban.

Verse 35-36 Laban did not really want Jacob to receive any wages. Laban led away all the animals that had marks. So, Jacob was looking after animals that had no marks. Of course, young animals would be born. Laban thought that the young animals would have no marks. He was trying to cheat Jacob.

Verses 37-40 It seems that Jacob had a dream at this time (Genesis 31:10-12). Jacob’s behaviour may seem strange to us. But perhaps he was acting the events that he saw in this dream. Whatever happened, God made Jacob wealthy. Jacob knew that Laban was trying to cheat. But Jacob was trusting God (Genesis 31:5-7)

Verse 41-42 God even allowed Jacob to own the stronger animals. But Laban’s animals were weaker.

Verse 43 God had promised that he would take care of Abraham and his *descendants. And clearly, God was doing what he had promised.

© 2006, Wycliffe Associates (UK)

This publication is written in EasyEnglish Level B (2800 words).

May 2006

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