Genesis 30:33-43

33 And my righteousness shall answer for me on the morrow, for it is my reward before thee: whatever shall not be spotted and speckled among the goats, and grey among the rams, shall be stolen with me.

34 And Laban said to him, Let it be according to thy word.

35 And he separated in that day the spotted and speckled he-goats, and all the spotted and speckled she-goats, and all that was grey among the rams, and every one that was white among them, and he gave them into the hand of his sons.

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.

41 And it came to pass in the time wherein the cattle became pregnant, conceiving in the belly, Jacob put the rods before the cattle in the troughs, that they might conceive by the rods.

42 But he did not put them in whenever the cattle happened to bring forth, but the unmarked ones were Laban's, and the marked ones were Jacob's.

43 And the man became very rich, and he had many cattle, and oxen, and servants, and maid-servants, and camels, and asses.

Genesis 30:33-43 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO GENESIS 30

This chapter gives an account of Rachel's envy of her sister for her fruitfulness, and of her earnest desire of having children, which she expressed to Jacob in an unbecoming manner, for which he reproved her, Ge 30:1,2, of her giving her maid Bilhah to Jacob, by whom he had two sons, Dan and Naphtali, Ge 30:3-8; and of Leah's giving her maid Zilpah to him, by whom he had two other sons, Gad and Asher, Ge 30:9-13; and of Reuben's mandrakes he found in the field, and the agreement made between Rachel and Leah about them, Ge 30:14-16; and of Leah's bearing Jacob two more sons and one daughter, Ge 30:17-21, and of Rachel's also bearing him a son, whose name was Joseph, Ge 30:22-24; upon which he desires leave of Laban to depart into his own country, his time of servitude being up, Ge 30:25,26; which brought on a new agreement between him and Laban, that for the future he should have all the speckled, spotted, and brown cattle for his service, Ge 30:27-36; and the chapter is concluded with an account of a cunning scheme of Jacob's to increase that sort of cattle, which succeeded, and by which he became rich, Ge 30:37-43.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hearken to or obey me.
• [b]. Gr. and between. Hebraism.
• [c]. Apparently the nom. absol.
• [d]. The meaning of the Hebrew seems to be, when the cattle were weak from any cause. The LXX. by assigning the yeaning time as the cause, have obscured the passage. Of course Jacob would not put them in then.