Genesis 32:15

15 thirty female camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.

Genesis 32:15 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 32:15

Thirty milch camels with their colts
Milch camels were in great esteem in the eastern countries; their milk being, as Aristotle ^F25 and Pliny ^F26 say, the sweetest of all milk: forty kine and ten bulls;
one bull to ten cows; the same proportion as in the goats and rams: twenty she asses and ten foals;
and supposing thirty colts belonging to the camels; the present consisted of five hundred and eighty head of cattle: a large number to spare out of his flocks and herds, that he had acquired in six years' time; and showed a generous disposition as well as prudence, to part with so much in order to secure the rest.

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FOOTNOTES:

F25 Hist. Animal. l. 6. c. 26.
F26 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 41. & 28. 9.

Genesis 32:15 In-Context

13 Jacob stayed there for the night and prepared a gift for Esau from what he had with him:

14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred female sheep and twenty male sheep,

15 thirty female camels and their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys, and ten male donkeys.

16 Jacob gave each separate flock of animals to one of his servants and said to them, "Go ahead of me and keep some space between each herd."

17 Jacob gave them their orders. To the servant with the first group of animals he said, "My brother Esau will come to you and ask, 'Whose servant are you? Where are you going and whose animals are these?'