25 Sometime after Rahel had given birth to Yosef, Yacob said to Lavan, “Send me off now, so that I can return to my place and to my land. 26 Let me take my wives that I worked for you for, and take my children so that I can leave, because you yourself know how long and hard I’ve worked for you.”

27 But Lavan replied, “Please stay, if I’ve found favour in your eyes because I’ve learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then he added, “Tell me how much you want and I’ll pay you that.”

29 “You yourself know how well I’ve served you and how your livestock have prospered with me.” Yacob replied. 30 Before I came, you didn’t have much, but now you have plenty because Yahweh has blessed you wherever I was involved. But now, when will I also do something for my own household?”

31 “What should I give you?” Lavan asked.

“You don’t have to give me anything,” Yacob replied. “If you’ll do this one thing for me, I’ll continue taking care of your flocks: 32 Let me look through all your flocks today and separate out from them all the lambs that are speckled, spotted, or dark-coloured, and all the young goats that are spotted or speckled. They will be my pay. 33 So in the future, you’ll be able to see that I’ve been honest because you’ll be able to see it for yourself: any goat that’s not speckled and spotted, and any sheep that’s not dark-coloured, if it’s in my flock then it must have been stolen.”

34 “Ok then, let’s do it your way.” Lavan agreed. 35 But that very day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, any that had white on it, and all the dark-coloured ones among the lambs. Then he gave them to his sons to look after, 36 and they took them a three-day journey away from where Yacob was, so Yacob wasleft just tending the rest of Lavan’s flocks.

37 Then Yacob got some freshly cut branches of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them by exposing the white that was inside the branches. 38 Then he put the branches that he had peeled in the water troughs where the flocks would see them when they came to drink, and they mated when they came to drink. 39 Thus the flocks would mate by the striped branches, and they would bear young who were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

40 Then Yacob separated out those young animals into a separate flock, and he made the older flocks look at the streaked and all the dark-coloured animals in Lavan’s flocks. So he kept his own flocks by themselves and didn’t mix them with Lavan’s flocks.

41 So whenever the strong animals were ready to mate, then Yacob put the branches in the troughs in front of the flocks so that they would mate by the branches, 42 but when the animals were weak, he didn’t put them in. So the weak animals went to Lavan and the strong ones to Yacob 43 so he became very wealthy, and he owned large flocks as well as male and female slaves, and camels and donkeys.