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30 When Rachel saw that she bore no children for Jacob, Rachel was jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me sons—if there are none, I’ll die!”
2 But Jacob became furious with Rachel and said, “Am I, instead of God, the one who withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
3 So she said, “Here’s my maid-servant Bilhah. Go to her and let her give birth on my knees, so that from her I may also build a family.” 4 Then she gave her maid-servant Bilhah to him for a wife, and Jacob went to her. 5 Bilhah became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Jacob. 6 So Rachel said, “God has judged my cause and also heard my voice—and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan. 7 Then Rachel’s female servant became pregnant again and gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 8 So Rachel said, “I’ve surely wrestled greatly with my sister—also I’ve won.” So she named him Naphtali.
9 Now Leah saw that she stopped having children, so she took Zilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife. 10 Then Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, gave birth to a son for Jacob. 11 Leah said, “How fortunate!” So she named him Gad. 12 Then Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, gave birth to a second son for Jacob. 13 Leah said, “How happy am I, for daughters have called me happy.” So she named him Asher.
14 Now during the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and he brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”[a]
15 But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took my husband away? You’d also take away my son’s mandrakes?”
So Rachel said, “That being so, let him lie with you tonight, in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”
16 So when Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him, and she said, “You must come to me. For I’ve actually hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he lay with her that very night. 17 Moreover, God heard Leah, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. 18 Leah said, “God gave me my reward[b] because I gave my female servant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar. 19 Then Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. 20 Leah said, “God has presented me a good gift. This time my husband will honor me for I’ve borne six sons for him.” So she named him Zebulun. 21 Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22 Then God remembered Rachel and God listened to her and opened her womb. 23 Then she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. So she said, “God has taken away my disgrace.” 24 She named him Joseph saying, “May Adonai add another son for me.”
Jacob Outwits Laban
25 Now it was after Rachel gave birth to Joseph that Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away so that I can go to my place and to my land. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I’ve served you, and let me go. For you yourself know my labor—that I’ve served you.”
27 But Laban said to him, “If I’ve found favor in your eyes—I’ve looked for good omens, and Adonai has blessed me because of you.” 28 Moreover he said, “Name your own price and I’ll pay it.”
29 Then he said to him, “You yourself know how I’ve served you and how your livestock fared with me. 30 For you had very little before I came, and it has been busting at the seams in abundance. So Adonai blessed you with my every step. So now, when am I myself going to make something for my household also?”
31 Then he said, “What can I pay you?”
Jacob said, “You don’t need to pay me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will shepherd your flock again and watch it: 32 let me pass through your flock today, removing every colorfully spotted lamb from there and every dark-colored lamb among the sheep as well as the colorfully spotted among the goats—and that will be my salary. 33 So tomorrow my honesty will testify on my behalf when you come to check on my salary you agreed to. Every one that isn’t colorfully spotted among the goats or dark-colored among the sheep with me, it is stolen.”
34 So Laban said, “All right! May it be according to your word.” 35 On that day he removed the colorfully striped and colorful billy goats as well as all the colorfully spotted goats—everyone with white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he put them in the hand of his sons. 36 Then he put a three-day’s journey between them and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding Laban’s remaining flocks.
37 But Jacob took fresh white poplar, almond, and plane tree branches, peeled away white stripped sections on them, exposing the white of the branches. 38 Then he set the branches he had peeled in front of the flocks in the drinking troughs and watering channels where the flocks come to drink. Since they were in heat when they came to drink, 39 the flocks mated near the branches, and the flocks gave birth to striped, spotted and colorful ones. 40 Now Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped ones as well as all the dark-colored ones among Laban’s flocks. Then he set aside the herds for himself and did not put them with Laban’s flocks. 41 Whenever the strong flocks mated, Jacob put the branches in the watering troughs before the eyes of the flocks, to have them mate near the branches. 42 But when the flocks were sickly, he did not put the branches down—so the sickly ones became Laban’s and the stronger ones became Jacob’s. 43 And the man grew exceedingly prosperous and had numerous flocks, along with female and male servants, camels and donkeys.
Jacob Secretly Leaves Laban
31 Now Jacob heard the words Laban’s sons were saying, “Jacob has taken everything that belongs to our father, and from what belongs to our father he has made all these riches.” 2 Then Jacob saw Laban’s face, and he noticed that his expression wasn’t the same as it was just a day or two before. 3 Then Adonai said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
4 So Jacob sent and called for Rachel and Leah to come to the field, to his flock. 5 He said to them, “I can see by your father’s face that his expression isn’t the same as it was just a day or two ago. But the God of my father has been with me. 6 Now you yourselves know that I’ve served your father with all my strength. 7 Yet your father has fooled around with me and has changed my salary ten times—but God hasn’t allowed him to harm me. 8 If he would say, ‘the spotted ones will be your salary,’ then the flocks would give birth to spotted ones. Or if he would say, ‘the striped ones will be your salary,’ then all the flocks would give birth to striped ones. 9 So God has taken away your father’s livestock and has given them to me. 10 Now it happened when the flocks were in heat that I lifted up my eyes and saw, in a dream, behold, the males going up to the flocks were striped, spotted and speckled. 11 Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Hineni.’ 12 He said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see that all the males going up to the flocks are striped, spotted and speckled. For I have seen everything Laban has done to you. 13 I am the God of Beth-El where you anointed a memorial stone, where you made a vow to Me. Get up now and leave this land, and return to the land of your relatives.’”
14 Then Rachel answered along with Leah and they said to him, “Is there still a portion and inheritance for us in our father’s house? 15 Aren’t we considered foreigners to him? For he has sold us and has also completely used up our bridal price. 16 For all the riches that God has taken away from our father is for us and for our children. So now, everything God said to you, do it!”
Instructions to the Twelve
10 Yeshua summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, so they could drive them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness. 2 Now these are the names of the twelve emissaries: first, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew; Jacob the son of Zebedee and John his brother; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; Jacob, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot,[a] and Judah the man from Kriot,[b] the one who also betrayed Him.
5 Yeshua sent out these twelve and ordered them, “Do not go to the Gentiles, and do not enter into any Samaritan town. 6 But go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near!’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with tzara’at, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give. 9 Do not get gold or silver or copper for your money belts, 10 or a bag for the journey, or two shirts,[c] or sandals, or a walking stick; for the worker is entitled to his food.
11 “Whatever town or village you shall enter, find out who in it is worthy and stay there until you leave. 12 As you come into the house, greet it. 13 If the household is worthy, let your shalom come upon it. But if it’s not worthy, let your shalom return to you. 14 And whoever will not receive you or listen to your words, as you leave that house or that town, shake the dust off your feet. 15 Amen, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah[d] on the Day of Judgment than for that town.
16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17 But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and flog[e] you in their synagogues. 18 You will be brought before governors and kings because of Me, as a witness to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you should say, for it shall be given to you in that hour what you should say. 20 For it is not you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death. 22 And you will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end shall be saved. 23 Whenever they persecute you in one city, flee to the next. Amen, I tell you, you will never finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Silence the Flattering Lips
Psalm 12
1 For the music director, on the eight-string lyre, a psalm of David.
2 Help, Adonai! For no one godly exists.
For the faithful have vanished from the children of men.
3 Everyone tells a lie to his neighbor,
talking with flattering lips and a divided heart.
4 May Adonai cut off all flattering lips—
a tongue bragging big things.
5 They say: “With our tongue we’ll prevail.
We own our lips—who can master us?”
6 “Because of the oppression of the poor,
because of the groaning of the needy,
now will I arise,” says Adonai.
“I will put him in the safe place—he pants for it.”
7 The words of Adonai are pure words—
like silver refined in an earthly crucible,
purified seven times.
8 You will keep us safe, Adonai.
You will protect us from this generation forever.
9 The wicked strut all around,
while vileness is exalted by mankind.
Precious Pearls, A Tree of Life
13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom
and the man who gains understanding.
14 For her trade-value is better than silver,
and her yield better than fine gold.
15 She is more precious than jewels
and nothing you desire compares to her.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.