1. Rachel saw that she was not giving birth to children for Jacob. So she envied her sister Leah. Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I’ll die!”
2. Jacob became angry with her. He said, “Can I do what only God can do? He is the one who has kept you from having children.”
3. Then Rachel said, “Here is my slave girl Bilhah. Have physical relations with her so she can give birth to a child for me. Then I can have my own family through her.”
4. So Rachel gave Bilhah, her slave girl, to Jacob as a wife. And he had physical relations with her.
5. She became pregnant and gave Jacob a son.
6. Rachel said, “God has declared me innocent. He has listened to my prayer and has given me a son.” So Rachel named this son Dan.
7. Bilhah became pregnant again and gave Jacob a second son.
8. Rachel said, “I have struggled hard with my sister. And I have won.” So she named that son Naphtali.
9. Leah saw that she had stopped having children. So she gave her slave girl Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.
10. Then Zilpah had a son.
11. Leah said, “I am lucky.” So she named her son Gad.
12. Zilpah gave birth to another son.
13. Leah said, “I am very happy! Now women will call me happy.” So she named that son Asher.
14. During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the field and found some mandrake plants. He brought them to his mother Leah. But Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”