So Jacob worked for seven years to acquire Rachel. ¹  But they seemed like only a few days to him ²  because his love for her was so great. ³ 

Jacob did as Laban said. ¹  When Jacob ²  completed Leah’s bridal week, ³  Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. ⁴ 

Then Rachel said, “God has vindicated me. He has responded to my prayer ¹  and given me a son.” That is why ²  she named him Dan. ³ 

Then Rachel said, “I have fought a desperate struggle with my sister, but I have won.” ¹  So she named him Naphtali. ² 

Then Rachel and Leah replied to him, “Do we still have any portion or inheritance ¹  in our father’s house?

He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them. ¹ 

Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, seven in all.

After Rachel had given birth ¹  to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send ²  me on my way so that I can go ³  home to my own country. ⁴ 

Jacob set up a marker ¹  over her grave; it is ²  the Marker of Rachel’s Grave to this day.

When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she ¹  became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children ²  or I’ll die!”

Jacob became furious ¹  with Rachel and exclaimed, “Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?” ² 

In the morning Jacob discovered it was Leah! ¹  So Jacob ²  said to Laban, “What in the world have you done to me! ³  Didn’t I work for you in exchange for Rachel? Why have you tricked ⁴  me?”

At the time ¹  of the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found some mandrake plants ²  in a field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, and Leah’s tent, and the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find the idols. ¹  Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s. ² 

(Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them inside her camel’s saddle ¹  and sat on them.) ²  Laban searched the whole tent, but did not find them. ³ 

They traveled on from Bethel, and when Ephrath was still some distance away, ¹  Rachel went into labor ²  – and her labor was hard.

The Lord says, “A sound is heard in Ramah, ¹  a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” ² 

Jacob looked up ¹  and saw that Esau was coming ²  along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

But Leah replied, ¹  “Wasn’t it enough that you’ve taken away my husband? Would you take away my son’s mandrakes too?” “All right,” ²  Rachel said, “he may sleep ³  with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”