Jacob and Laban’s Livestock

²⁵ After Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob told Laban, “Send me off so that I can go back to my place and country. ²⁶ Give me my wives and children for whom I’ve served you. Then I’ll leave, since you’re aware of my service to you.”

²⁷ Then Laban responded, “If I’ve found favor in your sight, please stay with me, because I’ve learned through divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you. ²⁸ Name your wage, and I’ll give it to you.”

²⁹ But Jacob replied to Laban, “You know how I’ve served you and how your cattle thrived under my care. ³⁰ What you had previously was only a few head, but the herd has now multiplied, because the Lord has blessed you through my efforts.^[a] But now, when am I going to be able to provide for my own household?”

³¹ “What do I have to give you?” Laban asked.

Jacob responded, “You don’t have to give me anything. Just do this for me: Let me tend your flock again and watch over it. ³² Let me walk among your flocks today and remove every speckled or spotted sheep, along with every black lamb, and let me do the same with the speckled and spotted goats. These will be my wages. ³³ In the future, you’ll be able to verify my honesty because, when you come to check^[b] what I’ve earned, if you find a goat that’s not speckled or spotted or a sheep that’s not black, then it will have been stolen by me.”

³⁴ “Very well,” Laban replied. “We’ll do it the way you’ve asked.” ³⁵ That very day, Laban^[c] removed the male goats that were striped or spotted, all the female goats that were speckled or spotted—that is, every one that had white on them—and all the black lambs and placed them into the care^[d] of his sons. ³⁶ He sent them as far away from Jacob as a three days’ journey could take them.

Meanwhile, Jacob kept tending the rest of Laban’s flock. ³⁷ Jacob took branches^[e] from white poplar trees, freshly cut almond trees, and some other trees,^[f] stripped off their bark to make white streaks, and uncovered the white part inside the branches. ³⁸ Then he placed the branches that he had stripped bare in all the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink. He placed the branches in front of the flock, and they went into heat as they came to drink. ³⁹ When the flocks mated in front of the branches, they would bear offspring^[g] that were striped, speckled, or spotted.

⁴⁰ Jacob kept the lambs separate, facing the striped and entirely black ones that belonged to Laban’s flock. He set his own herd by itself and would not let them be with Laban’s flock. ⁴¹ Whenever the more vigorous of the flock came into heat, Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the flock to make them mate by the branches.

⁴² But he didn’t put the branches in front of any of the feeble members of the flock. As a result, the feeble ones belonged to Laban, but the stronger ones belonged to Jacob. ⁴³ Therefore the man Jacob^[h] prospered so much that he had large flocks, female and male servants, as well as camels and donkeys.