When Rachel saw that she was not having children for Jacob, she envied her sister Leah. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!” Jacob became angry with her and said, “Can I do what only God can do? He is the one who has kept you from having children.”
Then Rachel said, “Here is my slave girl Bilhah. Have sexual relations with her so she can give birth to a child for me. Then I can have my own family through her.”
So Rachel gave Bilhah, her slave girl, to Jacob as a wife, and he had sexual relations with her. She became pregnant and gave Jacob a son. Rachel said, “God has judged me innocent. He has listened to my prayer and has given me a son,” so she named him Dan.
Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son. Rachel said, “I have struggled hard with my sister, and I have won.” So she named that son Naphtali.
Leah saw that she had stopped having children, so she gave her slave girl Zilpah to Jacob as a wife. When Zilpah had a son, Leah said, “I am lucky,” so she named him Gad. Zilpah gave birth to another son, and Leah said, “I am very happy! Now women will call me happy,” so she named him Asher.
During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the field and found some mandrake plants and brought them to his mother Leah. But Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”
Leah answered, “You have already taken away my husband, and now you are trying to take away my son’s mandrakes.”
But Rachel answered, “If you will give me your son’s mandrakes, you may sleep with Jacob tonight.”
When Jacob came in from the field that night, Leah went out to meet him. She said, “You will have sexual relations with me tonight because I have paid for you with my son’s mandrakes.” So Jacob slept with her that night.
Then God answered Leah’s prayer, and she became pregnant again. She gave birth to a fifth son and said, “God has given me what I paid for, because I gave my slave girl to my husband.” So Leah named her son Issachar.
Leah became pregnant again and gave birth to a sixth son. She said, “God has given me a fine gift. Now surely Jacob will honor me, because I have given him six sons,” so she named him Zebulun.
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