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.’
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.’
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.
17. God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
18. Then Leah said, ‘God has rewarded me for giving my servant to my husband.’ So she named him Issachar.
19. Leah conceived again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
20. Then Leah said, ‘God has presented me with a precious gift. This time my husband will treat me with honour, because I have borne him six sons.’ So she named him Zebulun.
21. Some time later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
22. Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
23. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son and said, ‘God has taken away my disgrace.’
24. She named him Joseph, and said, ‘May the Lord add to me another son.’
25. After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, ‘Send me on my way so that I can go back to my own homeland.
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.’
27. But Laban said to him, ‘If I have found favour in your eyes, please stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.’