Genesis 30

Question 1

Genesis 30:1

Answer 1

When Rachel saw that she was not bearing Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister. So she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”

Question 2

Genesis 30:2

Answer 2

Jacob became angry with her and said, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?”

Question 3

Genesis 30:3

Answer 3

Then she said, “Here is Bilhah, my maidservant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I too can build a family.”

Question 4

Genesis 30:4

Answer 4

So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. Jacob slept with her,

Question 5

Genesis 30:5

Answer 5

and she became pregnant and bore him a son.

Question 6

Genesis 30:6

Answer 6

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son.” Because of this she named him Dan.

Question 7

Genesis 30:7

Answer 7

Rachel’s servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Question 8

Genesis 30:8

Answer 8

Then Rachel said, “I have had a great struggle with my sister, and I have won.” So she named him Naphtali.

Question 9

Genesis 30:9

Answer 9

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

Question 10

Genesis 30:10

Answer 10

Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a son.

Question 11

Genesis 30:11

Answer 11

Then Leah said, “What good fortune!” So she named him Gad.

Question 12

Genesis 30:12

Answer 12

Leah’s servant Zilpah bore Jacob a second son.

Question 13

Genesis 30:13

Answer 13

Then Leah said, “How happy I am! The women will call me happy.” So she named him Asher.

Question 14

Genesis 30:14

Answer 14

During wheat harvest, Reuben went out into the fields and found some mandrake plants, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

Question 15

Genesis 30:15

Answer 15

But she said to her, “Wasn’t it enough that you took away my husband? Will you take my son’s mandrakes too?” “Very well,” Rachel said, “he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.”

Question 16

Genesis 30:16

Answer 16

So when Jacob came in from the fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him. “You must sleep with me,” she said. “I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So he slept with her that night.

Question 17

Genesis 30:17

Answer 17

God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.

Question 18

Genesis 30:18

Answer 18

Then Leah said, “God has rewarded me for giving my maidservant to my husband.” So she named him Issachar.

Question 19

Genesis 30:19

Answer 19

Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.

Question 20

Genesis 30:20

Answer 20

Then Leah said, “God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honor, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

Question 21

Genesis 30:21

Answer 21

Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.

Question 22

Genesis 30:22

Answer 22

Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.

Question 23

Genesis 30:23

Answer 23

She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, “God has taken away my disgrace.”

Question 24

Genesis 30:24

Answer 24

She named him Joseph, and said, “May the LORD add to me another son.”

Question 25

Genesis 30:25

Answer 25

After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so I can go back to my own homeland.

Question 26

Genesis 30:26

Answer 26

Give me my wives and children, for whom I have served you, and I will be on my way. You know how much work I’ve done for you.”

Question 27

Genesis 30:27

Answer 27

But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

Question 28

Genesis 30:28

Answer 28

He added, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”

Question 29

Genesis 30:29

Answer 29

Jacob said to him, “You know how I have worked for you and how your livestock has fared under my care.

Question 30

Genesis 30:30

Answer 30

The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?”

Question 31

Genesis 30:31

Answer 31

“What shall I give you?” he asked. “Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them:

Question 32

Genesis 30:32

Answer 32

Let 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. They will be my wages.

Question 33

Genesis 30:33

Answer 33

And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored, will be considered stolen.”

Question 34

Genesis 30:34

Answer 34

“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

Question 35

Genesis 30:35

Answer 35

That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats and all the dark-colored lambs, and he placed them in the care of his sons.

Question 36

Genesis 30:36

Answer 36

Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Question 37

Genesis 30:37

Answer 37

Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

Question 38

Genesis 30:38

Answer 38

Then he placed the peeled branches in all the watering troughs, so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat and came to drink,

Question 39

Genesis 30:39

Answer 39

they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

Question 40

Genesis 30:40

Answer 40

Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

Question 41

Genesis 30:41

Answer 41

Whenever the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,

Question 42

Genesis 30:42

Answer 42

but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.

Question 43

Genesis 30:43

Answer 43

In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and maidservants and menservants, and camels and donkeys.