Targum Jonathan - Genesis 30

1 And Rahel saw that she bare not to Jakob, and Rahel was envious of her sister, and said to Jakob, Pray before the Lord that He give me children; and if not, my life I shall reckon as the dead.
2 And the anger of Jakob was stong against Rahel, and he said, Why do you ask of me? Ask before the Lord, from before whom are children, and who hath restrained from thee the fruit of the womb.
3 And she said, Behold my handmaid Bilhah, enter with her, that she may bear, and I may increase and may be builded up from her.
4 And she made her handmaid Bilhah free, and delivered her to him, and Jakob entered with her.
5 And Bilhah conceived, and bare a son to Jakob.
6 And Rahel said, The Lord hath judged me in His good mercies; He hath also heard the voice of my prayer, and given me a son; and so it is to be that He shall judge by the hand of Shimshon bar Manovach, who shall be of his seed; and hath he not delivered into his hand the people of the Philistaee? Therefore she called his name Dan.
7 And Bilhah the handmaid of Leah conceived again and bare a second son to Jakob.
8 And Rahel said, With affliction afflicted was I before the Lord in prayer; therefore He hath received my request that I might have a son as my sister, and hath given me two. Even so are my children to be redeemed from the hand of their enemies when they shall afflict themselves in prayer before the Lord; and she called his name Naphtali.
9 And Leah saw that she had ceased from bearing, and she made Zilpha her handmaid free, and gave her unto Jakob to wife.
10 And Zilpha the handmaid of Leah conceived, and bare Jakob a son;
11 and Leah said, Good fortune cometh; his children shall surely inherit their habitation on the east side of Jardena: and she called his name Gad.
12 And Zilpha the handmaid of Leah bare a second son to Jakob.
13 And Leah said, Praise shall be mine: for the daughters of Israel will praise me, as his children will be praised before the Lord for the goodness of the fruit of his land; and she called his name Asher.
14 And Reuben went in the days of Sivan, in the time of wheat harvest, and found (Yaveruchin) mandrakes in the field; and he brought them to Leah his mother. And Rahel said to Leah, Give me now of thy son's mandrakes.
15 And she said to her, Is it a little thing that thou hast taken my husband, and thou seekest to take also my son's mandrakes? And Rahel said, Therefore shall he lie with thee this night for thy son's mandrakes.
16 And Jakob came from the field at evening. And Leah heard the voice of the braying of the ass, and knew that Jakob had come, and Leah went forth to meet him, and said, Thou wilt enter with me, because hiring I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes from Rahel my sister.
17 And he lay with her that night. And the Lord heard the prayer of Leah, and she conceived, and bare to Jakob a fifth son.
18 And Leah said, The Lord hath given me my reward, for that I gave my handmaid to my husband; even so shall his children receive a good reward, because they will occupy themselves with the law. And she called his name Issakar.
19 And Leah conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jakob;
20 and said, The Lord hath endowed me with a good dowry by children. This time will the habitation of my husband be with me, because I have borne him six sons: and thus shall his children receive a good portion. And she called his name Zebulun.
21 And afterward she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah; for she said, Judgement is from before the Lord, that there shall be from me a half of the tribes; but from Rahel my sister shall go forth two tribes, even as they shall proceed (in like manner) from each of the handmaids. And the prayer of Leah was heard before the Lord; and the infants were changed In their wombs; and Joseph was given to the womb of Rahel, and Dinah to the womb of Leah.
22 And the remembrance of Rahel came before the Lord, and the voice of her prayer was heard before Him; and He said in his Word that He would give her sons.
23 And she conceived and, bare a son, and said, The Lord hath gathered off my reproach, even as Jehoshua the son of Joseph will gather off the reproach of Mizraim from the sons of Israel, and will circumcise them beyond Jardena.
24 And she called his name Joseph, saying, The Lord will add me yet another son to this one.
25 And it was when Rahel had borne Joseph, Jakob said by the Holy Spirit concerning the house of Joseph, They are to be as a flame to consume the house of Esau; and he said, Therefore will I not be afraid of Esau and his legions. And he, said unto Laban, Send me away, and I will go to my place and to my country.
26 Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and I will go; for thou knowest my service with which I have served thee.
27 But Laban said to him, If now I have found grace in thy eyes, I have observed by divination that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake.
28 And he said, Appoint thy wages with me, and I will give thee.
29 And he said to him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle have been kept by me:
30 for the little flock which thou hadst before me hath increased greatly, and the Lord hath blessed thee at my foot, that I have been profitable to thee from (the time of) my coming into thy house. And now when shall I do the work for which I am bound, to nourish the men of my house.
31 And he said, What shall I give thee ? And Jakob said, Thou shalt not give me anything else, (but) do me this thing, and I will return and pasture thy flock, and keep them.
32 I will pass through thy whole flock today, and will set apart every lamb streaked and spotted, and every black lamb among the lambs, and spotted and streaked among the goats, and they shall be my wages.
33 And my righteousness shall testify for me tomorrow, when my wages shall be brought before thee. Every one which is not streaked or spotted among the goats, or black among the lambs, shall be as if it had been a theft of mine.
34 And Laban said to him, Well, let it be according to thy word.
35 And he separated that day the goats which were marked in their feet, and the spotted, and all the goats streaked or spotted, every one which had a white place in him, and every black one among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons.
36 And he set a journey of three days between his flocks and (those of) Jakob. And Jakob tended the flock of Laban, the old and the feeble which were left.
37 And Jakob took to him a rod of flowering poplar, and of almond, and of the plane tree, and peeled in them white peelings to disclose the white which was in the rods.
38 And the rods which he had peeled, he fixed in the canals, in the troughs of water; at the place to which they brought the flocks to water, there placed he them over against the flock that they might conceive when they came to drink.
39 And the sheep conceived over against the rods, and the sheep produced such as were marked in their feet, and spotted and white in their backs.
40 And the lambs did Jakob set apart, and place in front of the flocks; all the various coloured and the black among Laban's sheep he set for himself a flock apart, and did not mix them with the sheep of Laban.
41 And it was that whenever the early (prime) sheep conceived, Jakob set the rods in the canals before the eyes of the sheep, that they might conceive before the rods.
42 But with the late sheep he did not set them; and the late sheep were Laban's and the early ones Jakob's.
43 And the man increased greatly, and had a multitude of flocks, and handmaids and servants, and camels, and asses.