Genesis 30:41

And it was that whenever the early (prime) sheep conceived, Jakob placed the rods before the eyes of the sheep in the canals, that they might conceive before the rods: but before the late sheep he did not place them.

Targum Onkelos

In The King James Version

And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

In Context

40And Jakob separated the lambs, and set before the sheep which were various coloured and all that were black among the sheep of Laban; and placed them for himself a flock apart, not mixing them with the sheep of Laban.

42And (so) the late ones were Laban’s, and the prime ones Jacob’s.

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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 30:41