Genesis 30:25–43

JACOB’S FLOCKS MULTIPLY

²⁵After Rachel gave birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go.ⁿ You know how hard I have worked for you.”

²⁷But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” ²⁸Then Laban said, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”^o

²⁹So Jacob said to him, “You know how I have served you and how your herds have fared with me.^{p 30}For you had very little before I came, but now your wealth has increased. The Lord has blessed you because of me. And now, when will I also do something for my own family?”

³¹Laban asked, “What should I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You don’t need to give me anything. If you do this one thing for me, I will continue to shepherd and keep your flock. ³²Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-colored sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages. ³³In the future when you come to check on my wages, my honesty will testify for me. If I have any female goats that are not speckled or spotted, or any lambs that are not black, they will be considered stolen.”

³⁴“Good,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.”

³⁵That day Laban removed the streaked and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats—every one that had any white on it—and every dark-colored one among the lambs, and he placed his sons in charge of them. ³⁶He put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. Jacob, meanwhile, was shepherding the rest of Laban’s flock.

³⁷Jacob then took branches of fresh poplar, almond, and plane wood, and peeled the bark, exposing white stripes on the branches. ³⁸He set the peeled branches in the troughs in front of the sheep—in the water channels where the sheep came to drink. And the sheep bred when they came to drink. ³⁹The flocks bred in front of the branches and bore streaked, speckled, and spotted young.^{a 40}Jacob separated the lambs and made the flocks face the streaked sheep and the completely dark sheep in Laban’s flocks. Then he set his own stock apart and didn’t put them with Laban’s sheep.

⁴¹Whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob placed the branches in the troughs, in full view of the flocks, and they would breed in front of the branches. ⁴²As for the weaklings of the flocks, he did not put out the branches. So it turned out that the weak sheep belonged to Laban and the stronger ones to Jacob. ⁴³And the man became very rich.^A He had many flocks, female and male slaves, and camels and donkeys.^b