Genesis 31:8

8 If he should say thus, The speckled shall be thy reward, then all the cattle would bear speckled; and if he should say, The white shall be thy reward, then would all the cattle bear white.

Genesis 31:8 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 31:8

If he said thus, the speckled shall be thy wages
Sometimes Laban would say to Jacob, only the speckled lambs which the ewes shall bring forth shall be thine hire, and not the spotted; or the ringstraked, or the brown, which according to the bargain should have been his, the one and the other: then all the cattle bare speckled;
that season, God ordering it so in his providence, that Laban might be disappointed, and Jacob might have his full hire; that is, the greatest part of the cattle bore such, as Ben Melech observes: and if he said thus, the ringstraked shall be thine hire;
observing the cattle to bring forth only speckled, or the greatest part such, then he changed his hire, and would have it be not the speckled, nor the brown, only the ringstraked, there being none or few of that colour the last yeaning time: then bare all the cattle ringstraked;
or the greatest part of them were such; so that let Laban fix on what colour he would as Jacob's wages, there were sure to be the greatest part of that colour; which shows the hand of God in it, as is next observed by Jacob.

Genesis 31:8 In-Context

6 And ye too know that with all my might I have served your father.

7 But your father deceived me, and changed my wages for the ten lambs, yet God gave him not to hurt me.

8 If he should say thus, The speckled shall be thy reward, then all the cattle would bear speckled; and if he should say, The white shall be thy reward, then would all the cattle bear white.

9 So God has taken away all the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

10 And it came to pass when the cattle conceived and were with young, that I beheld with mine eyes in sleep, and behold the he-goats and the rams leaping on the sheep and the she-goats, speckled and variegated and spotted with ash-coloured spots.