Genesis 30:32-43 ▼

32 I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my wages.

33 So my honesty will testify for me later on, when the subject of my wages comes before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep that I have in my possession, will be counted as stolen.|

34 Laban said, |Look, let it be as you have said.|

35 That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and put them in the care of his sons.

36 He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37 Jacob took fresh branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white streaks by peeling them, exposing white stripes on the branches.

38 He set up the peeled branches which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

39 the flocks bred in front of the branches, and the flocks brought bore streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 Jacob separated the lambs, and made the flocks face toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban. So he kept his own flocks separate, and did not put them into Laban’s flock.

41 It happened, whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, that Jacob would set up the branches in front of the flock in the troughs, so that they would breed near the branches;

42 but for the weaker of the flock, he did not put them there. So the weaker would be Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.

43 Thus the man became very rich, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.