19. Laban replied, “It is better to give her to you than to another man. Stay with me.”
20. So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet they seemed to him like a few days because of his love for her.
21. Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, that I may consummate my marriage with her, for my term is now completed.”
22. So Laban invited all the local inhabitants and gave a banquet.
23. At nightfall he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he consummated the marriage with her.
24. Laban assigned his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.
25. In the morning, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban: “How could you do this to me! Was it not for Rachel that I served you? Why did you deceive me?”
26. Laban replied, “It is not the custom in our country to give the younger daughter before the firstborn.
27. Finish the bridal week for this one, and then the other will also be given to you in return for another seven years of service with me.”
28. Jacob did so. He finished the bridal week for the one, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.
29. Laban assigned his maidservant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.
30. Jacob then consummated his marriage with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. Thus he served Laban another seven years.
31. When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he made her fruitful, while Rachel was barren.
32. Leah conceived and bore a son, and she named him Reuben; for she said, “It means, ‘The Lord saw my misery; surely now my husband will love me.’”
33. She conceived again and bore a son, and said, “It means, ‘The Lord heard that I was unloved,’ and therefore he has given me this one also”; so she named him Simeon.
34. Again she conceived and bore a son, and she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, since I have now borne him three sons”; that is why she named him Levi.
35. Once more she conceived and bore a son, and she said, “This time I will give thanks to the Lord”; therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing children.