Genesis 30:38

38 And he laid the rods which he had peeled, in the hollows of the watering-troughs, that whensoever the cattle should come to drink, as they should have come to drink before the rods, the cattle might conceive at the rods.

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 he set a distance of a three days' journey between them and Jacob. And Jacob tended the cattle of Laban that were left behind.

37 And Jacob took to himself green rods of storax tree and walnut and plane-tree; and Jacob peeled in them white stripes; and as he drew off the green, the white stripe which he had made appeared alternate on the rods.

38 And he laid the rods which he had peeled, in the hollows of the watering-troughs, that whensoever the cattle should come to drink, as they should have come to drink before the rods, the cattle might conceive at the rods.

39 So the cattle conceived at the rods, and the cattle brought forth speckled, and streaked and spotted with ash-coloured .

40 And Jacob separated the lambs, and set before the sheep a speckled ram, and every variegated one among the lambs, and he separated flocks for himself alone, and did not mingle them with the sheep of Laban.