Genesis 30:25–43

Jacob Prospers

²⁵Now it came about when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “^aSend me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own country.

²⁶“Give me my wives and my children ^afor whom I have served you, and let me depart; for you yourself know my service which I have ¹rendered you.”

²⁷But Laban said to him, “If now ¹it pleases you, stay with me; I have divined ^athat the Lord has blessed me on your account.”

²⁸He ¹continued, “^aName me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹But he said to him, “^aYou yourself know how I have served you and how your cattle have ¹fared with me.

³⁰“For you had little before ¹I came and it has ²increased to a multitude, and the Lord has blessed you ³wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?”

³¹So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock:

³²let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every ^aspeckled and spotted sheep and every black ¹one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages.

³³“So my ¹honesty will answer for me later, when you come concerning my ²wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.”

³⁴Laban said, “¹Good, let it be according to your word.”

³⁵So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the ¹care of his sons.

³⁶And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Then Jacob ¹took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was ²in the rods.

³⁸He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they ¹mated when they came to drink.

³⁹So the flocks ¹mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob separated the lambs, and ¹made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹Moreover, whenever the ¹stronger of the flock ²were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the gutters, so that they might ³mate by the rods;

⁴²but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the ¹stronger Jacob’s.

⁴³So ^athe man ¹became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.