Genesis 30:38

38 He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink.

Genesis 30:38 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:38

And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks,
&c.] Opposite them, in the view of them: in the gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to
drink;
that is, in places of water, where troughs or vessels were made, into which the water ran convenient for the cattle to drink out of; and here he placed his party coloured rods right over against the flocks: that they should conceive when they came to drink;
as it was most likely they should when they were together at the water, and had refreshed themselves with it; and being "heated" ^F17, as the word signifies, with a desire of copulation, might conceive in sight of the above rods; which were set to move upon their imagination at the time of their conception, in order to produce cattle of different colours; to which no doubt he was directed of God, and it had, through his blessing, the wished for success, as follows:

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FOOTNOTES:

F17 (hnmxy) "incalescebant", Montanus, Vatablus, Drusius; "ut incalescerent", Junius & Tremellius.

Genesis 30:38 In-Context

36 and then went away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flocks.

37 Jacob got green branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.

38 He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink.

39 So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban's flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban's.