My other websites: Catholic, Prophets today, For Kids

Also read the verses, if you like.

Genesis 29

Arrival in Haran.^*

1^a After Jacob resumed his journey, he came to the land of the Kedemites.

2Looking about, he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep huddled near it, for flocks were watered from that well. A large stone covered the mouth of the well.^b

3When all the shepherds were assembled there they would roll the stone away from the mouth of the well and water the sheep. Then they would put the stone back again in its place over the mouth of the well.

4Jacob said to them, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We are from Haran,” they replied.

5Then he asked them, “Do you know Laban, son of Nahor?” “We do,” they answered.^c

6He inquired further, “Is he well?” “He is,” they answered; “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

7Then he said: “There is still much daylight left; it is hardly the time to bring the animals home. Water the sheep, and then continue pasturing them.”

8They replied, “We cannot until all the shepherds are here to roll the stone away from the mouth of the well; then can we water the flocks.”

9While he was still talking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was the one who tended them.

10As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of Laban, he went up, rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well, and watered Laban’s sheep.

11Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

12Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s relative, Rebekah’s son. So she ran to tell her father.

13When Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet him. After embracing and kissing him, he brought him to his house. Jacob then repeated to Laban all these things,

14and Laban said to him, “You are indeed my bone and my flesh.”^*

Marriage to Leah and Rachel. After Jacob had stayed with him a full month,

15^* Laban said to him: “Should you serve me for nothing just because you are a relative of mine? Tell me what your wages should be.”

16Now Laban had two daughters; the older was called Leah, the younger Rachel.

17Leah had dull eyes,^* but Rachel was shapely and beautiful.

18Because Jacob loved Rachel, he answered, “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.”^*

19Laban replied, “It is better to give her to you than to another man. Stay with me.”

20So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, yet they seemed to him like a few days because of his love for her.^d

21Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, that I may consummate my marriage with her, for my term is now completed.”

22So Laban invited all the local inhabitants and gave a banquet.

23At nightfall he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he consummated the marriage with her.

24Laban assigned his maidservant Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her maidservant.

25In 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?”

26Laban replied, “It is not the custom in our country to give the younger daughter before the firstborn.

27Finish 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.”^e

28Jacob did so. He finished the bridal week for the one, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as a wife.

29Laban assigned his maidservant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.

30Jacob then consummated his marriage with Rachel also, and he loved her more than Leah. Thus he served Laban another seven years.^f

Jacob’s Children.^*

31When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, he made her fruitful, while Rachel was barren.

32Leah 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.’”^g

33She 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.^*

34Again 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.^*

35Once 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.^h

For more information on this chapter

Genesis 30

1When Rachel saw that she had not borne children to Jacob, she became envious of her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children or I shall die!”^a

2Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you the fruit of the womb?”^b

3She replied, “Here is my maidservant Bilhah. Have intercourse with her, and let her give birth on my knees,^* so that I too may have children through her.”^c

4So she gave him her maidservant Bilhah as wife,^* and Jacob had intercourse with her.

5When Bilhah conceived and bore a son for Jacob,

6Rachel said, “God has vindicated me; indeed he has heeded my plea and given me a son.” Therefore she named him Dan.^*

7Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah conceived again and bore a second son for Jacob,

8and Rachel said, “I have wrestled strenuously with my sister, and I have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali.^*

9When Leah saw that she had ceased to bear children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as wife.

10So Leah’s maidservant Zilpah bore a son for Jacob.

11Leah then said, “What good luck!” So she named him Gad.^*

12Then Leah’s maidservant Zilpah bore a second son to Jacob;

13and Leah said, “What good fortune, because women will call me fortunate!” So she named him Asher.^*

14One day, during the wheat harvest, Reuben went out and came upon some mandrakes^* in the field which he brought home to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

15Leah replied, “Was it not enough for you to take away my husband, that you must now take my son’s mandrakes too?” Rachel answered, “In that case Jacob may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son’s mandrakes.”

16That evening, when Jacob came in from the field, Leah went out to meet him. She said, “You must have intercourse with me, because I have hired you with my son’s mandrakes.” So that night he lay with her,

17and God listened to Leah; she conceived and bore a fifth son to Jacob.

18Leah then said, “God has given me my wages for giving my maidservant to my husband”; so she named him Issachar.^*

19Leah conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob;

20and Leah said, “God has brought me a precious gift. This time my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.^*

21Afterwards she gave birth to a daughter, and she named her Dinah.

22Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and made her fruitful.

23She conceived and bore a son, and she said, “God has removed my disgrace.”^d

24She named him Joseph,^* saying, “May the LORD add another son for me!”

Jacob Outwits Laban.^*

25After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban: “Allow me to go to my own region and land.

26Give me my wives and my children for whom I served you and let me go, for you know the service that I rendered you.”

27Laban answered him: “If you will please! I have learned through divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

28He continued, “State the wages I owe you, and I will pay them.”

29Jacob replied: “You know what work I did for you and how well your livestock fared under my care;

30the little you had before I came has grown into an abundance, since the LORD has blessed you in my company. Now, when can I do something for my own household as well?”

31Laban asked, “What should I give you?” Jacob answered: “You do not have to give me anything. If you do this thing for me, I will again pasture and tend your sheep.

32Let me go through your whole flock today and remove from it every dark animal among the lambs and every spotted or speckled one among the goats.^* These will be my wages.

33In the future, whenever you check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me: any animal that is not speckled or spotted among the goats, or dark among the lambs, got into my possession by theft!”

34Laban said, “Very well. Let it be as you say.”

35That same day Laban removed the streaked and spotted he-goats and all the speckled and spotted she-goats, all those with some white on them, as well as every dark lamb, and he put them in the care of his sons.^*

36Then he put a three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flock.

37Jacob, however, got some fresh shoots of poplar, almond and plane^* trees, and he peeled white stripes in them by laying bare the white core of the shoots.

38The shoots that he had peeled he then set upright in the watering troughs where the animals came to drink, so that they would be in front of them. When the animals were in heat as they came to drink,

39the goats mated by the shoots, and so they gave birth to streaked, speckled and spotted young.

40The sheep, on the other hand, Jacob kept apart, and he made these animals face the streaked or completely dark animals of Laban. Thus he produced flocks of his own, which he did not put with Laban’s flock.

41Whenever the hardier animals were in heat, Jacob would set the shoots in the troughs in full view of these animals, so that they mated by the shoots;

42but with the weaker animals he would not put the shoots there. So the feeble animals would go to Laban, but the hardy ones to Jacob.

43So the man grew exceedingly prosperous, and he owned large flocks, male and female servants, camels, and donkeys.

For more information on this chapter

Mark 5 : 1-20

The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac.

1^{* a} They came to the other side of the sea, to the territory of the Gerasenes.

2When he got out of the boat, at once a man^* from the tombs who had an unclean spirit met him.

3The man had been dwelling among the tombs, and no one could restrain him any longer, even with a chain.

4In fact, he had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

5Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones.

6Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostrated himself before him,

7crying out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with me,^* Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me!”

8(He had been saying to him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”)

9^* He asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”^b

10And he pleaded earnestly with him not to drive them away from that territory.

11Now a large herd of swine^* was feeding there on the hillside.

12And they pleaded with him, “Send us into the swine. Let us enter them.”

13And he let them, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine. The herd of about two thousand rushed down a steep bank into the sea, where they were drowned.

14The swineherds ran away and reported the incident in the town and throughout the countryside. And people came out to see what had happened.

15As they approached Jesus, they caught sight of the man who had been possessed by Legion, sitting there clothed and in his right mind. And they were seized with fear.

16Those who witnessed the incident explained to them what had happened to the possessed man and to the swine.

17Then they began to beg him to leave their district.

18As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed pleaded to remain with him.

19But he would not permit him but told him instead, “Go home^* to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”

20Then the man went off and began to proclaim in the Decapolis what Jesus had done for him; and all were amazed.

For more information on this chapter

To view all previous blogs click here.

Sermons Rosary Prayers Catholic Answers

The complete Book of Genesis

The book of Mark