Genesis 30:39

The animals also mated in front of the branches, and eventually they gave birth to animals that were speckled, or to animals that were spotted, or to animals that had black and white stripes on them.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.

In Context

38Then he placed the peeled branches in the troughs where they put the water for the animals to drink, so that the branches would be in front of the flocks when they came to drink.

40Furthermore, Jacob separated the female sheep in his flock from the other sheep and goats in Laban’s flock. And when his female sheep mated, he made them look toward the animals that belonged to Laban that had black and white stripes on them, and the dark-colored animals. He did that so that the female sheep would give birth to animals that were striped or dark-colored. By doing that, he made bigger flocks for himself, and he kept them separate from Laban’s flocks.

Read all of Genesis 30

Cross References

Genesis 31:9In that way, God has taken away the livestock that belonged to your father and has given them to me.

Genesis 31:38I was with you for 20 years. In all that time, your sheep and goats have ◄not miscarried/always given birth to animals safely►. I have not killed and eaten any rams from your flocks.

Genesis 31:42If God, the one whom my grandfather Abraham worshiped and before whom my father Isaac trembled in fear, had not been with me and helped me, you would have sent me away ◄with nothing in my hands/owning nothing►! But God saw how much I was suffering and how hard I was working, so last night he told you that what you have done to me was wrong.”

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 30:39