Genesis 31:41

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Genesis 31:39–43 · Berean Standard Bible

39 I did not bring you anything torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for what was stolen by day or night.

40 As it was, the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.

41 Thus for twenty years I have served in your household—fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks—and you have changed my wages ten times!

42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”

43 But Laban answered Jacob, “These daughters are my daughters, these sons are my sons, and these flocks are my flocks! Everything you see is mine! Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine or the children they have borne?

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Genesis 31:38

I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten the rams of your flock.

Genesis 29:18

Since Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”

Genesis 29:19

Laban replied, “Better that I give her to you than to another. Stay here with me.”

Genesis 29:20

So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet it seemed but a few days because of his love for her.

Genesis 29:21

Finally Jacob said to Laban, “Grant me my wife, for my time is complete, and I want to sleep with her.”

Genesis 29:22

So Laban invited all the men of that place and prepared a feast.

Genesis 29:23

But when evening came, Laban took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and he slept with her.

Genesis 29:24

And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.

Genesis 29:25

When morning came, there was Leah! “What have you done to me?” Jacob said to Laban. “Wasn’t it for Rachel that I served you? Why have you deceived me?”

Genesis 29:26

Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older.

Genesis 29:27

Finish this week’s celebration, and we will give you the younger one in return for another seven years of work.”

Genesis 29:28

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week’s celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

Genesis 29:29

Laban also gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.

Genesis 29:30

Jacob slept with Rachel as well, and indeed, he loved Rachel more than Leah. So he worked for Laban another seven years.

Genesis 30:33

So my honesty will testify for me when you come to check on my wages in the future. If I have any goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not dark-colored, they will be considered stolen.”

Genesis 30:34

“Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

Genesis 30:35

That very day Laban removed all the streaked or spotted male goats and every speckled or spotted female goat—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored lamb, and he placed them under the care of his sons.

Genesis 30:36

Then he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Genesis 30:37

Jacob, however, took fresh branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees, and peeled the bark, exposing the white inner wood of the branches.

Genesis 30:38

Then he set the peeled branches in the watering troughs in front of the flocks coming in to drink. So when the flocks were in heat and came to drink,

Genesis 30:39

they mated in front of the branches. And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.

Genesis 30:40

Jacob set apart the young, but made the rest face the streaked dark-colored sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and did not put them with Laban’s animals.

1 Corinthians 15:10

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

2 Corinthians 11:26

In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers,