Genesis 30:41

Jacob wanted his sheep and goats to be stronger than Laban’s, so he wanted the strong babies to be born with funny coloured wool. So whenever the strong sheep and strong goats came to drink water, Jacob put the spotty branches there, and the strong males and strong females joined together to make babies in front of those branches. Later on, when those babies were born, they were strong too, and they had funny coloured wool, so they belonged to Jacob.

Plain English Version

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

40Jacob did another thing with Laban’s animals too. He took the white sheep, and he got those sheep to look at the stripy animals and the black animals. After the babies were born, Jacob split up the animals. He took all the funny coloured animals for himself, just like he agreed with Laban. But all the white sheep and black goats belonged to Laban. And Jacob didn’t mix them together.

42But when the weak sheep and weak goats came to that place, Jacob didn’t put those branches in front of them. Then the weak sheep had white babies, and the weak goats had black babies, so they belonged to Laban. But the strong baby sheep and goats, they had funny coloured wool, so they belonged to Jacob.

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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 →

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Study Genesis 30:41