Jacob’s Prosperity and his flocks increase. Furthermore, whenever the stronger [animals] of the flocks were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the sight of the flock in the watering troughs, so that they would mate and conceive among the branches;
but when the flock was sickly, he did not put the branches there; so the sicker [animals] were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.
So Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks [of sheep and goats], and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys. Gen 30:41-43
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
II. GOD AND THE CHOSEN FAMILY, Genesis 12-50
2. The History of Isaac and Jacob, Genesis 25:19-35:29
55. In what shrewd but unworthy way did Jacob get the better of Laban?
Jacob’s Prosperity
Now when Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go back to my own place and to my own country.
Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know the work which I have done for you.”
But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; for I have learned [from the omens in divination and by experience] that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
He said, “Name your wages, and I will give it [to you].”
Jacob answered him, “You know how I have served you and how your possessions, your cattle and sheep and goats, have fared with me.
For you had little before I came and it has increased and multiplied abundantly, and the LORD has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own household?”
Laban asked, “What shall I give you?” Jacob replied, “You shall not give me anything. But if you will do this one thing for me [which I now propose], I will again pasture and keep your flock:
Let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every dark or black one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and those shall be my wages.
So my honesty will be evident for me later, when you come [for an accounting] concerning my wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark among the young lambs, if found with me, shall be considered stolen.”
And Laban said, “Good! Let it be done as you say.”
So on that same day Laban [secretly] removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one with white on it, and all the dark ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.
And he put [a distance of] three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was then left in care of the rest of Laban’s flock.
Then Jacob took branches of fresh poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white in the branches.
Then he set the branches which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated and conceived when they came to drink.
So the flocks mated and conceived by the branches, and the flocks gave birth to streaked, speckled, and spotted offspring.
Jacob separated the lambs, and [as he had done with the peeled branches] he made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the dark or black in the [new] flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart by themselves and did not put them [where they could breed] with Laban’s flock.
Furthermore, whenever the stronger [animals] of the flocks were breeding, Jacob would place the branches in the sight of the flock in the watering troughs, so that they would mate and conceive among the branches;
but when the flock was sickly, he did not put the branches there; so the sicker [animals] were Laban’s and the stronger Jacob’s.
So Jacob became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks [of sheep and goats], and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.
JACOB’S FLOCKS INCREASE
There is little in this story to the credit of Jacob, and nothing to choose between him and Laban. They are well matched one against another; and if anything, Jacob excelled in cunning. The heir of the promises deals with the child of this world on the principles of which men of honor would refuse to make use. We feel inclined to pity Laban, who had never seen the angel-ladder, or shared the great promises which had surrounded the path of his relative. He trusted this man of the chosen tribe, but was to be woefully deceived. But are there not many professing Christians who are playing Jacob’s part today? While holding high positions in the religious world, they stoop to practices to which men of the world would be no parties. We hear but little more of Laban, but Jacob is destined to pass through the fire of trouble, by which the dross will be consumed and his soul made white and purified.
Comments by
WILLIAM MACDONALD
Believers Bible Commentary
On
Genesis 30:25-43
II. THE PATRIARCHS OF ISRAEL (Chaps. 12-50)
C. Jacob (27:1–36:43)
4. Jacob Outwits Laban (30:25-43)
30:25-36 When Jacob told Laban that he wanted to return home to Canaan, his uncle urged him to stay. Laban said he had learned by experience that the LORD had blessed him because of Jacob, and he would meet his wage demands if he would stay. Jacob agreed to continue serving if Laban would give him all the speckled and spotted sheep and goats and all the dark lambs. All other animals in the flock would be acknowledged as Laban’s. The latter agreed to the pact, saying, “Oh, that it were according to your word.” Laban took most of the animals designated for Jacob and gave them to his sons to shepherd, realizing that they would probably reproduce with markings that identified them as belonging to Jacob. Then he entrusted his own animals to Jacob, separated from his own sons by a three-day journey. This made it impossible for the marked animals in the herds tended by Laban’s sons to breed with Laban’s unmarked animals that were tended by Jacob.
30:37-43 When breeding Laban’s herd, Jacob put rods that he had peeled in front of them, whether they were of solid color or marked. The lambs or kids were born streaked, speckled, and spotted. This, of course, meant that they belonged to Jacob. Did these rods actually determine the markings on the animals? There may or may not have been a scientific basis to the method. (New genetic evidence suggests that there might have been.) How else might the animals have been born with the markings Jacob desired?
First of all, it may have been a miracle (see Gen_31:12).
Or it may have been a clever trick on Jacob’s part. There are indications in the narrative that he knew the science of selective breeding. By careful breeding, he not only produced animals with the markings he desired, but he was also able to produce stronger animals for himself and feeble ones for Laban. Perhaps the peeled rods were just a trick to hide his breeding secrets from others. Whatever the explanation, Jacob’s wealth increased during his final six years of serving Laban.
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