Genesis 30:25–43

Jacob’s Agreement with Laban

²⁵And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, ^s“Send me away, that I may go to ^tmy own place and to my country. ²⁶Give me my wives and my children ^ufor whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service which I have done for you.”

²⁷And Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes, for ^vI have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.” ²⁸Then he said, ^w“Name me your wages, and I will give it.”

²⁹So Jacob said to him, ^x“You know how I have served you and how your livestock has been with me. ³⁰For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount; the Lord has blessed you ³since my coming. And now, when shall I also ^yprovide for my own house?”

³¹So he said, “What shall I give you?”

And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flocks: ³²Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from there all the speckled and spotted sheep, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and ^zthese shall be my wages. ³³So my ^arighteousness will answer for me in time to come, when the subject of my wages comes before you: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the lambs, will be considered stolen, if it is with me.”

³⁴And Laban said, “Oh, that it were according to your word!” ³⁵So he removed that day the male goats that were ^bspeckled and spotted, all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the lambs, and gave them into the hand of his sons. ³⁶Then he put three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷Now ^cJacob took for himself rods of green poplar and of the almond and chestnut trees, peeled white strips in them, and exposed the white which was in the rods. ³⁸And the rods which he had peeled, he set before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they should conceive when they came to drink. ³⁹So the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted. ⁴⁰Then Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the brown in the flock of Laban; but he put his own flocks by themselves and did not put them with Laban’s flock.

⁴¹And it came to pass, whenever the stronger livestock conceived, that Jacob placed the rods before the eyes of the livestock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. ⁴²But when the flocks were feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s. ⁴³Thus the man ^dbecame exceedingly prosperous, and ^ehad large flocks, female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.