Genesis 30:40

40 divisitque gregem Iacob et posuit virgas ante oculos arietum erant autem alba quaeque et nigra Laban cetera vero Iacob separatis inter se gregibus

Genesis 30:40 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:40

And Jacob did separate the lambs
The ringstraked, speckled, and spotted; and set the faces of the flocks,
that were all white, towards the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban;
either to go before those that were all white, that they by looking at them might conceive and bring forth such, which was another artifice of Jacob's to increase his own sheep; or else he set at the water troughs the white sheep on one side of them, and on the opposite side the speckled ones that the same effect might also be produced the more successfully both by the rods and by the speckled lambs: and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's
cattle;
partly that they might not be mixed together, but kept distinct, that what was his property might be discerned from Laban's; and partly, lest his spotted ones, being mixed with Laban's white sheep, by continual looking at them, should conceive and bring forth such likewise, and so his flocks be lessened.

Genesis 30:40 In-Context

38 posuitque eas in canalibus ubi effundebatur aqua ut cum venissent greges ad bibendum ante oculos haberent virgas et in aspectu earum conciperent

39 factumque est ut in ipso calore coitus oves intuerentur virgas et parerent maculosa et varia et diverso colore respersa

40 divisitque gregem Iacob et posuit virgas ante oculos arietum erant autem alba quaeque et nigra Laban cetera vero Iacob separatis inter se gregibus

41 igitur quando primo tempore ascendebantur oves ponebat Iacob virgas in canalibus aquarum ante oculos arietum et ovium ut in earum contemplatione conciperent

42 quando vero serotina admissura erat et conceptus extremus non ponebat eas factaque sunt ea quae erant serotina Laban et quae primi temporis Iacob