Text -- Genesis 30:28-43 (NET)

30:28 He added, “Just name your wages– I’ll pay whatever you want.” 30:29 “You know how I have worked for you,” Jacob replied, “and how well your livestock have fared under my care. 30:30 Indeed, you had little before I arrived, but now your possessions have increased many times over. The Lord has blessed you wherever I worked. But now, how long must it be before I do something for my own family too?” 30:31 So Laban asked, “What should I give you?” “You don’t need to give me a thing,” Jacob replied, “but if you agree to this one condition, I will continue to care for your flocks and protect them: 30:32 Let me walk among all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb, and the spotted or speckled goats. These animals will be my wages. 30:33 My integrity will testify for me later on. When you come to verify that I’ve taken only the wages we agreed on, if I have in my possession any goat that is not speckled or spotted or any sheep that is not dark-colored, it will be considered stolen.” 30:34 “Agreed!” said Laban, “It will be as you say.” 30:35 So that day Laban removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted (all that had any white on them), and all the dark-colored lambs, and put them in the care of his sons. 30:36 Then he separated them from Jacob by a three-day journey, while Jacob was taking care of the rest of Laban’s flocks. 30:37 But Jacob took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees. He made white streaks by peeling them, making the white inner wood in the branches visible. 30:38 Then he set up the peeled branches in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He set up the branches in front of the flocks when they were in heat and came to drink. 30:39 When the sheep mated in front of the branches, they gave birth to young that were streaked or speckled or spotted. 30:40 Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks. 30:41 When the stronger females were in heat, Jacob would set up the branches in the troughs in front of the flock, so they would mate near the branches. 30:42 But if the animals were weaker, he did not set the branches there. So the weaker animals ended up belonging to Laban and the stronger animals to Jacob. 30:43 In this way Jacob became extremely prosperous. He owned large flocks, male and female servants, camels, and donkeys.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Gen 30:28

¹ tn Heb “set your wage for me so I may give [it].”

NET Notes: Gen 30:29

¹ tn Heb “and he said to him, ‘You know how I have served you.’” The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons, and the referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and how your cattle were with me.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:30

¹ tn Or “for.”

² tn Heb “before me.”

³ tn Heb “and it has broken out with respect to abundance.”

⁴ tn Heb “at my foot.”

⁵ tn Heb “How long [until] I do, also I, for my house?”

NET Notes: Gen 30:31

¹ tn Heb “and he said.” The referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn The negated imperfect verbal form has an obligatory nuance.

³ tn The order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁴ tn Heb “If you do for me this thing.”

⁵ tn Heb “I will return, I will tend,” an idiom meaning “I will continue tending.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:32

¹ tn Heb “pass through.”

² tn Or “every black lamb”; Heb “and every dark sheep among the lambs.”

³ tn Heb “and the spotted and speckled among the goats.”

⁴ tn Heb “and it will be my wage.” The referent collective singular pronoun (“it) has been specified as “these animals” in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: Gen 30:33

¹ tn Heb “will answer on my behalf.”

² tn Heb “on the following day,” or “tomorrow.”

³ tn Heb “when you come concerning my wage before you.”

sn Only the wage we agreed on. Jacob would have to be considered completely honest here, for he would have no control over the kind of animals born; and there could be no disagreement over which animals were his wages.

⁴ tn Heb “every one which is not speckled and spotted among the lambs and dark among the goats, stolen it is with me.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:34

¹ tn Heb “and Laban said, ‘Good, let it be according to your word.’” On the asseverative use of the particle לוּ (lu) here, see HALOT 521 s.v. לוּ.

NET Notes: Gen 30:35

¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Laban) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and he gave [them] into the hand.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:36

¹ tn Heb “and he put a journey of three days between himself and Jacob.”

sn Three days’ traveling distance from Jacob. E. A. Speiser observes, “Laban is delighted with the terms, and promptly proceeds to violate the spirit of the bargain by removing to a safe distance all the grown animals that would be likely to produce the specified spots” (Genesis [AB], 238). Laban apparently thought that by separating out the spotted, striped, and dark colored animals he could minimize the production of spotted, striped, or dark offspring that would then belong to Jacob.

² tn The disjunctive clause (introduced by the vav with subject) is circumstantial/temporal; Laban removed the animals while Jacob was taking care of the rest.

NET Notes: Gen 30:38

¹ sn He put the branches in front of the flocks…when they came to drink. It was generally believed that placing such “visual aids” before the animals as they were mating, it was possible to influence the appearance of their offspring. E. A. Speiser notes that “Jacob finds a way to outwit his father-in-law, through prenatal conditioning of the flock by visual aids – in conformance with universal folk beliefs” (Genesis [AB], 238). Nevertheless, in spite of Jacob’s efforts at animal husbandry, he still attributes the resulting success to God (see 31:5).

NET Notes: Gen 30:39

¹ tn The Hebrew verb used here can mean “to be in heat” (see v. 38) or “to mate; to conceive; to become pregnant.” The latter nuance makes better sense in this verse, for the next clause describes them giving birth.

² tn Heb “the sheep.” The noun has been replaced by the pronoun (“they”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

NET Notes: Gen 30:40

¹ tn Heb “and he set the faces of.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:41

¹ tn Heb “and at every breeding-heat of the flock.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:42

¹ tn Heb “he did not put [them] in.” The referent of the [understood] direct object, “them,” has been specified as “the branches” in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “were for Laban.”

NET Notes: Gen 30:43

¹ tn Heb “the man”; Jacob’s name has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

² tn Heb “and there were to him.”