Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³ Now listen,^(A) you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”^{(B) 14} Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.^{(C) 15} Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will,^(D) we will live and do this or that.”

³¹ “What shall I give you?” he asked.

“Don’t give me anything,” Jacob replied. “But if you will do this one thing for me, I will go on tending your flocks and watching over them: ³² Let me go through all your flocks today and remove from them every speckled or spotted sheep, every dark-colored lamb and every spotted or speckled goat.^(A) They will be my wages.^{(B) 33} And my honesty will testify for me in the future, whenever you check on the wages you have paid me. Any goat in my possession that is not speckled or spotted, or any lamb that is not dark-colored,^(C) will be considered stolen.^(D)”

³⁴ “Agreed,” said Laban. “Let it be as you have said.” ³⁵ That same day he removed all the male goats that were streaked or spotted, and all the speckled or spotted female goats (all that had white on them) and all the dark-colored lambs,^(E) and he placed them in the care of his sons.^{(F) 36} Then he put a three-day journey^(G) between himself and Jacob, while Jacob continued to tend the rest of Laban’s flocks.

³⁷ Jacob, however, took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond^(H) and plane trees^(I) and made white stripes on them by peeling the bark and exposing the white inner wood of the branches.^{(J) 38} Then he placed the peeled branches^(K) in all the watering troughs,^(L) so that they would be directly in front of the flocks when they came to drink. When the flocks were in heat^(M) and came to drink, ³⁹ they mated in front of the branches.^(N) And they bore young that were streaked or speckled or spotted.^{(O) 40} Jacob set apart the young of the flock by themselves, but made the rest face the streaked and dark-colored animals^(P) that belonged to Laban. Thus he made separate flocks for himself and did not put them with Laban’s animals. ⁴¹ Whenever the stronger females were in heat,^(Q) Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals so they would mate near the branches,^{(R) 42} but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there. So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.^{(S) 43} In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous and came to own large flocks, and female and male servants, and camels and donkeys.^(T)

⁷ yet your father has cheated^(A) me by changing my wages^(B) ten times.^(C) However, God has not allowed him to harm me.^{(D) 8} If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your wages,’ then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, ‘The streaked ones will be your wages,’^(E) then all the flocks bore streaked young. ⁹ So God has taken away your father’s livestock^(F) and has given them to me.^(G)

¹⁰ “In breeding season I once had a dream^(H) in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. ¹¹ The angel of God^(I) said to me in the dream,^(J) ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’^{(K) 12} And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted,^(L) for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you.^{(M) 13} I am the God of Bethel,^(N) where you anointed a pillar^(O) and where you made a vow^(P) to me. Now leave this land at once and go back to your native land.^(Q)’”