Genesis 30:38

He put those sticks in the animal's water tanks. When the animals came to drink from those tanks, they mated and when the baby animals were born they had stripes and spots in their fur. In the mating season, Jacob put the boy animals that were white in with his spotty and dark coloured animals. The animals mated, and when the babies were born they were all spotty and dark coloured. Then Jacob took all of the spotted and dark coloured animals and put them in his own paddock. He made sure that his animals stayed away from Laban's animals. This is how Jacob made his mob of animals grow bigger in number.

Barkly (portions)

In The King James Version

And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

In Context

37Jacob knew that his uncle was tricking him again, and so he cut some sticks from 3 different kinds of trees. He cut some of the bark off the sticks so that they had stripes.

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Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:38-43

Jacob's Ingenious Policy. ( b. c. 1745.) 37 And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. 38 And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. 39 And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. 40 And Jacob did separate… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Genesis 30:38