When Rachel saw that she could not bear children to Jacob, Rachel envied her sister. And she said to Jacob, "Give me children—if not, I will die!" And Jacob became angry with Rachel. And he said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?" Then she said, "Here is my servant girl Bilhah; go in to her that she may bear children as my surrogate. Then I will even have children by her." Then she gave him Bilhah, her female servant, as a wife, and Jacob went in to her And Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son for Jacob. Then Rachel said, "God has judged me, and has also heard my voice, and has given me a son." Therefore she called his name Dan. And Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, conceived again and bore a second son to Jacob. And Rachel said, "I have struggled a mighty struggle with my sister and have prevailed." And she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took Zilpah her female servant and gave her to Jacob as a wife. And Zilpah, the female slave of Leah, bore a son to Jacob. Then Leah said, "Good fortune!" And she called his name Gad. And Zilpah, Leah’s female servant, bore a second son to Jacob. Then Leah said, "How happy am I! For women have called me happy." So she called his name Asher.

And in the days of the wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and he brought them to Leah his mother. And Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes." And she said to her, "Is your taking my husband such a small thing that you will also take the mandrakes of my son?" Then Rachel said, "Then he may sleep with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes." When Jacob came in from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him. And she said, "Come in to me, for I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes." And he slept with her that night. And God listened to Leah and she conceived and gave birth to a fifth son for Jacob. Then Leah said, "God has given me my wage since I gave my servant girl to my husband." And she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again and gave birth to a sixth son for Jacob. And Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift. This time my husband will acknowledge me, because I bore him six sons." And she called his name Zebulun. And afterward she gave birth to a daughter. And she called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel and listened to her, and God opened her womb. And she conceived and gave birth to a son. And she said, "God has taken away my disgrace." And she called his name Joseph, saying, "Yahweh has added to me another son."

And it happened that as soon as Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away that I may go to my place and my land. Give me my wives and my children for which I have served you, and let me go. For you yourself know my service that I have rendered to you." But Laban said to him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you." And he said, "Name your wage to me and I will give it." Then he said to him, "You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have been with me. For you had little before me, and it has increased abundantly. And Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. So then, when shall I provide for my own family also?" And he said, "What shall I give you?" And Jacob said, "Do not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flocks and keep them. Let me pass through all your flocks today, removing all the speckled and spotted sheep from them, along with every dark-colored sheep among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. That shall be my wages. And my righteousness will answer for me later when you come concerning my wages before you. Every one that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or dark-colored among the sheep shall be stolen if it is with me." Then Laban said, "Look! Very well. It shall be according to your word." But that day he removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, all that had white on it, and every dark-colored ram, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he put a journey of three days between him and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the remainder of Laban’s flock. Then Jacob took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled white strips on them, exposing the white which was on the branches. And he set the branches that he had peeled in front of the flocks, in the troughs and in the water containers. And they were in heat when they came to drink. And the flocks mated by the branches, so the flocks bore streaked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs and turned the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the dark-colored in Laban’s flocks. And he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with the flocks of Laban. And whenever any of the stronger of the flocks were in heat, Jacob put the branches in full view of the flock in the troughs that they might mate among the branches. But with the more feeble of the flock he would not put them there. So the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger were Jacob’s. And the man became exceedingly rich and had large flocks, female slaves, male slaves, camels, and donkeys.

Now he heard the words of the sons of Laban, saying, "Jacob has taken all that our father has," and "From that which was our father’s he has gained all this wealth." Then Jacob saw the face of Laban and, behold, it was not like it had been in the past. And Yahweh said to Jacob, "Return to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you." So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field, to his flocks, and he said to them, "Look, I see the face of your father, that it is not like it has been toward me in the past. But the God of my father is with me. Now you yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength, and your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God has not allowed him to harm me. If thus he said, ‘Speckled shall be your wage,’ then all the flock bore speckled. And if he said, ‘Streaked shall be your wage,’ then all the flock bore streaked. God has taken away your father’s livestock and given them to me. Now it happened that at the time of the mating of the flock I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream, and behold, the rams mounting the flock were streaked, speckled, and dappled. Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see—all the rams mounting the flock are streaked, speckled, and dappled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel where you anointed a stone pillar, where you made a vow to me. Now get up, go out from this land and return to the land of your birth.’" Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, "Is there yet a portion for us, and an inheritance in the house of our father? Are we not regarded as foreigners by him, because he has sold us and completely consumed our money? For all the wealth that God has taken away from our father, it belongs to us and to our sons. So now, all that God has said to you, do." Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on the camels. And he drove all his livestock and his possessions that he had acquired, the livestock of his possession that he had acquired in Paddan-Aram, in order to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan.

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the idols that belonged to her father. And Jacob tricked Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he intended to flee. Then he fled with all that he had, and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead. And on the third day it was told to Laban that Jacob had fled. Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued after him, a seven-day journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. And God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, "Take care that you not speak with Jacob, whether good or evil." And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his kinsmen pitched their tents in the hill country of Gilead. Then Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done that you tricked me and have carried off my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you hide your intention to flee and trick me, and did not tell me so that I would have sent you away with joy and song and tambourine and lyre? And why did you not give me opportunity to kiss my grandsons and my daughters goodbye? Now you have behaved foolishly by doing this. It is in my power to do harm to you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, ‘Take care from speaking with Jacob, whether good or evil.’ Now, you have surely gone because you desperately longed for the house of your father, but why did you steal my gods?" Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, "Because I was afraid, for I thought, ‘Lest you take your daughters from me by force.’ But with whomever you find your gods, he shall not live. In the presence of your kinsmen now identify what is with me that is yours and take it." Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. Then Laban went into Jacob’s tent and Leah’s tent and the tent of the two female servants and did not find his gods. And he came out of Leah’s tent and went into Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the idols and put them in the saddle bag of the camel and sat on them. And Jacob searched the whole tent thoroughly but did not find them. And she said to her father, "Let there not be anger in the eyes of my lord, for I am not able to rise before you, for the way of women is with me. And he searched carefully and did not find the idols. Then Jacob became angry and quarreled with Laban. Jacob answered and said to Laban, "What is my offense? What is my sin that you pursued after me? For you have searched all my possessions and what did you find among all the possessions of my household? Set it before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between the two of us! These twenty years I was with you; your ewes and your female goats did not miscarry, and the rams of your flocks I did not eat. I brought no mangled carcass to you—I bore its loss. From my hand you sought it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was, during the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have 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. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night." Then Laban answered and said to Jacob, "The daughters are my daughters and the grandsons are my grandsons, and the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see, it is mine. Now, what can I do for these my daughters today, or for their children whom they have borne? So now, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between me and you." And Jacob took a stone and set it up as a stone pillar. And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones." And they took stones and made a pile of stones, and they ate there by the pile of stones. And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed. Then Laban said, "This pile of stones is a witness between me and you today." Therefore its name is called Galeed, and Mizpah, because he said, "Yahweh watch between me and you when we are out of sight of each other. If you mistreat my daughters, and if you take wives besides my daughters, when there is no man with us, see—God is a witness between me and you." And Laban said to Jacob, "See, this pile of stones, and see the pillar that I have set up between me and you. This pile of stones is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass beyond this pile of stones to you, and that you will not pass beyond this pile of stones and this pillar to me intending harm. May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father judge between us." Then Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac. And Jacob sacrificed a sacrifice on the hill, and he called his kinsmen to eat the meal. And they ate the meal and spent the night on the hill. And Laban arose early in the morning and kissed his grandsons and his daughters, and blessed them. Then Laban departed and returned to his homeland.

For the music director. Of David.

And he began to speak to them in parables: "A man planted a vineyard, and put a fence around it, and dug a trough for the winepress, and built a watchtower, and leased it to tenant farmers, and went on a journey. And he sent a slave to the tenant farmers at the proper time, so that he could collect some of the fruit of the vineyard from the tenant farmers. And they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent to them another slave, and that one they struck on the head and dishonored. And he sent another, and that one they killed. And he sent many others, some of whom they beat and some of whom they killed. He had one more, a beloved son. Last of all he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenant farmers said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’ And they seized and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:

And they were seeking to arrest him, and they were afraid of the crowd, because they knew that he had told the parable with reference to them. And they left him and went away.

And they sent some of the Pharisees and the Herodians to him so that they could catch him unawares in a statement. And when they came, they said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are truthful and you do not care what anyone thinks, because you do not regard the opinion of people but teach the way of God in truth. Is it permitted to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?" But because he knew their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius so that I can look at it!" So they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" And they said to him, "Caesar’s." And Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God!" And they were utterly amazed at him.

And Sadducees—who say there is no resurrection—came up to him and began to ask him, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if someone’s brother dies and he leaves behind a wife and does not leave a child, that his brother should take the wife and father descendants for his brother. There were seven brothers, and the first took a wife. And when he died, he did not leave descendants. And the second took her, and he died without leaving descendants. And the third likewise. And the seven did not leave descendants. Last of all the woman also died. In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife. Jesus said to them, "Are you not deceived because of this, because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. Now concerning the dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses in the passage about the bush how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken!"

And one of the scribes came up and heard them debating. When he saw that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, ‘Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and from your whole soul and from your whole mind and from your whole strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these." And the scribe said to him, "That is true, Teacher. You have said correctly that he is one and there is no other except him. And to love him from your whole heart and from your whole understanding and from your whole strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." And Jesus, when he saw that he had answered thoughtfully, said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to put a question to him any longer.

And continuing, Jesus said while teaching in the temple courts, "How can the scribes say that the Christ is David’s son? David himself said by the Holy Spirit,

David himself calls him ‘Lord,’ and how is he his son?" And the large crowd was listening to him gladly.

And in his teaching he said, "Beware of the scribes, who like walking around in long robes and greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets, who devour the houses of widows and pray lengthy prayers for the sake of appearance. These will receive more severe condemnation!"

And he sat down opposite the contribution box and was observing how the crowd was putting coins into the contribution box. And many rich people were putting in many coins. And one poor widow came and put in two small copper coins (that is, a penny). And summoning his disciples, he said to them, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow put in more than all those who put offerings into the contribution box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in everything she had, her whole means of subsistence."