Genesis 30:25-43
Jacob Names His Wages
25Now it happened when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said to Laban, “aSend me away, that I may go to my own place and to my own land. 26“Give me my wives and my children afor whom I have served you, and let me go; for you yourself know my service which I have 1rendered you.” 27But Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your sight, stay with me; I have interpreted an omen athat Yahweh has blessed me on your account.” 28And he continued to say, “aName me your wages, and I will give it.” 29But he said to him, “aYou yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have 1fared with me. 30“For you had little before 1I came, but it has aspread out to a multitude, and Yahweh has blessed you 2at every step of mine. But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?” 31So he said, “What shall I give you?” And Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again pasture and keep your flock: 32let me pass through your entire flock today, removing from there every aspeckled and spotted sheep and every black 1one among the lambs and the spotted and speckled among the goats; and such shall be my wages. 33“So my righteousness will answer for me later, when you come concerning my 1wages. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and black among the lambs, if found with me, will be considered stolen.” 34And Laban said, “Behold, 1let it be according to your word.” 35So he removed on that day the striped and spotted male goats and all the speckled and spotted female goats, every one with white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the 1care of his sons. 36And he put a distance of three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was pasturing the rest of Laban’s flocks.
37Then Jacob 1took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane trees, and he peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white which was 2in the rods. 38And he set the rods which he had peeled in front of the flocks in the trough, that is, in the watering channels, where the flocks came to drink; and they 1mated when they came to drink. 39So the flocks 1mated by the rods, and the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted. 40And Jacob separated the lambs, and he 1made the flocks face toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he set his own herds apart and did not set them with Laban’s flock. 41Now it would be that, whenever the 1stronger of the flock 2were mating, Jacob would place the rods in the sight of the flock in the trough, so that they might 3mate by the rods; 42but when the flock was feeble, he did not put them in; so the feebler were Laban’s and the 1stronger Jacob’s. 43So athe man bspread out exceedingly and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys.