In verses 14-16 Jacob’s wives respond to his speech.

Then Rachel and Leah answered him: this statement may give the impression that both women are speaking in unison, with one voice. If this is a problem for the translator’s language, it may be necessary to adjust this introductory sentence to say, for example, “Rachel and Leah spoke to Jacob and one of them asked [said] ….”

Is there any portion or inheritance…?: this question is rhetorical and a way of saying “There is nothing we can inherit….” See Good News Translation. Portion or inheritance is a construction in which two nouns are joined by a conjunction, but which has a single meaning, “inheritance.” The thought is that at their marriage to Jacob Rachel and Leah received all the inheritance they could expect from their father. Two examples of the way this may be expressed in translation are “There is nothing more that we-two can get when our father dies” and “Our father doesn’t want to give us anything when he dies.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .