Genesis 30:40

40 The Iacob parted the labes and turned the faces of the shepe toward spotted thinges and toward all maner of blacke thinges thorow out the flockes of Laba. And he made him flockes of his owne by the selfe which he put not vnto the flockes of Laba.

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 And he put the staues which he had pilled eue before ye shepe in the gutters and watrynge troughes whe the shepe came to drynke: yt they shulde coceaue whe they came to drynke.

39 And the shepe coceaued before the staues and brought forth straked spotted and partie.

40 The Iacob parted the labes and turned the faces of the shepe toward spotted thinges and toward all maner of blacke thinges thorow out the flockes of Laba. And he made him flockes of his owne by the selfe which he put not vnto the flockes of Laba.

41 And allwaye in the first buckinge tyme of the shepe Iacob put the staues before the shepe in the gutters yt they myghte conceaue before the staues

42 But in the latter buckynge tyme he put them not there: so the last brode was Labas and the first Iacobs.