Genesis 30:38

38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they 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 he put a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

37 Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was in the rods.

38 He set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the gutters, even in the watering troughs, where the flocks came to drink; and they mated when they came to drink.

39 So the flocks mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own herds apart, and did not put them with Laban's flock.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "conceived"