Today's Reading

31 Now when Jehovah saw that Leah was hated, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.

32 And Leah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Reuben, for she said, Because Jehovah has looked upon my affliction, surely now my husband will love me.

33 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, Because Jehovah has heard that I am hated, He has therefore given me this son also; so she called his name Simeon.

34 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore his name was called Levi.

35 And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise Jehovah. Therefore she called his name Judah. Then she ceased bearing.

1 And when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said to Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

2 And Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?

3 And she said, Here is my servant Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I also may have children through her.

4 And she gave him Bilhah her female servant as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.

5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.

6 And Rachel said, God has judged me, and has also heard my voice and given me a son; therefore she called his name Dan.

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

8 And Rachel said, In wrestling with God, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed; so she called his name Naphtali.

9 Now when Leah saw that she ceased bearing, she took Zilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife.

10 And Zilpah Leah’s female servant bore Jacob a son.

11 And Leah said, How fortunate! So she called his name Gad.

12 And Zilpah Leah’s female servant bore Jacob a second son.

13 And Leah said, Happy am I! For the daughters will call me blessed; so she called his name Asher.

14 And Reuben went out in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.

15 And she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? And would you take away my son’s mandrakes also? So Rachel said, Then he may lie with you tonight in return for your son’s mandrakes.

16 And Jacob came from the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son’s mandrakes. So he lay with her that night.

17 And God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son.

18 And Leah said, God has given me my hire, because I gave my female servant to my husband; so she called his name Issachar.

19 And Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob.

20 And Leah said, God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons; so she called his name Zebulun.

21 And afterward she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.

22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God gave heed to her and opened her womb.

23 And she conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach.

24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, May Jehovah add to me another son.

25 And when Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, Send me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go; for you indeed know my service by which I have served you.

27 And Laban said to him, If you please, I have divined that Jehovah has blessed me on account of you.

28 And he said, Name me your wages, and I will give it.

29 And Jacob said to him, You indeed know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me.

30 For you had little before I came, and it has spread into a multitude, and Jehovah has blessed you wherever I turned. But now when shall I provide for my own house also?

31 And he said, What shall I give you? And Jacob said, You shall not give me anything. Just do this one thing for me: Let me again feed your flock and keep it.

32 Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted animal, that is, every black animal among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such will be my wages.

33 So my righteousness will testify for me later, when you come concerning my wages, by what is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the sheep, if found with me, will be counted stolen.

34 And Laban said, Fine; let it be according to your word.

35 But on that day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the care of his sons.

36 And he set a distance of a three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37 And Jacob took rods of fresh poplar and almond and plane trees and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.

38 And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, in the watering places where the flocks came to drink; and they bred when they came to drink.

39 And the flocks bred before the rods; and the flocks brought forth young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 And Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flock toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban, and he put his own herds apart and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

41 And whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the flock in the troughs so that they might breed among the rods;

42 But when the flock was feebler, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

43 And the man became spread out exceedingly, and had large flocks, and female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

1 Now Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, Jacob has taken away all that belonged to our father; and from what belonged to our father he has made all this wealth.

2 And Jacob saw Laban’s countenance, and now it was not favorable toward him as previously.

3 And Jehovah 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 Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field,

5 And he said to them, I see that your father’s countenance is not favorable toward me as previously, but the God of my father has been with me.

6 And you yourselves know that with all my strength I have served your father.

7 And your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not allow him to harm me.

8 If he spoke in this way, The speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he spoke in this way, The streaked shall be your wages, then all the flock bore streaked.

9 Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me.

10 And at the time the flock was breeding, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream; and there were the male goats, leaping upon the flock — streaked, speckled, and spotted.

11 And the Angel of God said to me in the dream, Jacob; and I said, Here I am.

12 And He said, Lift up your eyes now, and see that all the male goats which leap upon the flock are streaked, speckled, and spotted; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

13 I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to Me. Rise up now; go out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.

14 And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, Do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father’s house?

15 Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us and has even entirely used up the money given for us.

16 Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father is ours and our children’s. So do now whatever God has said to you.

17 Then Jacob rose up and set his sons and his wives upon the camels;

18 And he drove away all his livestock and all his property which he had acquired, the livestock in his possession which he had acquired in Paddan-aram, in order to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan.

19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

20 And Jacob deceived Laban the Aramaean by not telling him that he was fleeing.

21 So he fled with all that he had, and he rose up and crossed over the River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

22 And it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled.

23 And he took his brothers with him and pursued after him the distance of a seven days’ journey; and he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead.

24 And God came to Laban the Aramaean in a dream of the night and said to him, Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.

25 And Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban with his brothers also pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.

26 And Laban said to Jacob, What are you doing deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?

27 Why did you flee secretly and steal away from me and not tell me, when I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with tambourine and with lyre?

28 And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have acted foolishly.

29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.

30 And now, though you had to go because you longed greatly for your father’s house, why did you steal my gods?

31 And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid, for I thought that you might take your daughters from me by force.

32 The one with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our brothers indicate what there is with me that is yours, and take it. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent and into Leah’s tent and into the two female servants’ tent, but he did not find them. Then he went from Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

34 Now Rachel had taken the teraphim and put them in the camel’s saddle, and she sat upon them. And Laban rummaged through all the tent but did not find them.

35 And she said to her father, Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before you, for the manner of women is upon me. So he searched but did not find the teraphim.

36 And Jacob became angry and contended with Laban; and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my transgression? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me?

37 Although you have rummaged through all my possessions, what have you found of all your household goods? Set it here before my brothers and your brothers, that they may decide between the two of us.

38 These twenty years have I been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks.

39 That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you; I bore the loss of it myself. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

40 Thus I was: By day the dry heat consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.

41 These twenty years have I been in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times.

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Dread of Isaac, had not been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.

43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob, The daughters are my daughters, and the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine. But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have borne?

44 So come now; let us make a covenant, I and you; and let it be a witness between me and you.

45 So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.

46 And Jacob said to his brothers, Gather stones. So they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.

47 And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.

48 And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and you today. Therefore its name was called Galeed

49 And Mizpah, because he said, Jehovah watch between me and you when we are absent from one another.

50 If you afflict my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters — even though no man is with us — see, God is witness between me and you.

51 And Laban said to Jacob, Here is this heap, and here is the pillar which I have set between me and you.

52 This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this heap to you and that you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me, for harm.

53 The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us. And Jacob swore by the Dread of his father Isaac.

54 And Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brothers to eat a meal, and they ate a meal and spent the night in the mountain.

55 And early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them, and Laban departed and returned to his place.

16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore prudent as serpents and guileless as doves.

17 And beware of men, for they will deliver you up to sanhedrins, and in their synagogues they will scourge you.

18 And you will also be brought before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

19 But when they deliver you up, do not be anxious about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak;

20 For you are not the ones speaking, but the Spirit of your Father is the One speaking in you.

21 And brother will deliver up brother to death, and father his child; and children will rise up against their parents and put them to death.

22 And you will be hated by all because of My name. But he who has endured to the end, this one shall be saved.

23 And when they persecute you in this city, flee into another. For truly I say to you, You shall by no means finish the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.

24 A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above his master.

25 It is sufficient for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebul, how much more those of His household!

26 Therefore do not fear them; for there is nothing covered which will not be revealed, and hidden which will not be made known.

27 What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, proclaim on the housetops.

28 And do not fear those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for an assarion? And not one of them will fall to the earth apart from your Father.

30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32 Everyone therefore who will confess in Me before men, I also will confess in him before My Father who is in the heavens;

33 But whoever will deny Me before men, I also will deny him before My Father who is in the heavens.

34 Do not think that I have come to bring peace on the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set men at variance: a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

36 And a man’s enemies will be those of his household.

37 He who loves father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me;

38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

39 He who finds his soul-life shall lose it, and he who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it.

40 He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who has sent Me.

41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.

42 And whoever gives to one of these little ones only a cup of cold water to drink in the name of a disciple, truly I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.

1 And when Jesus had finished giving instructions to His twelve disciples, He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.