Jacob Becomes Very Rich Working for Laban

30:25-43

25 Then it happened, after Rachel bore Joseph, then Jacob said to Laban, “Send me off, so that I may go to my place and to my land. 26 Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, so that I may go. For you yourself know my service that I have served you.”

27 Then Laban said to him, “Please stay, if I have found favor in your eyes. I have learned by divination that Yahweh has blessed me because of you.” 28 Then he said, “Name your wages to me, and I will give them.” 29 And he said to him, “You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock have been with me. 30 For there was little that was yours before me, and it has prospered to abundance, and Yahweh has blessed you at my feet. But now, when will I also do something for my household?”

31 Then he said, “What should I give to you?” And Jacob said, “Do not give anything to me. If you will do this thing for me, I will continue tending your flocks watching over them: 32 I will pass through all your flocks today to remove from there every speckled and spotted lamb and every dark-colored lamb among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled young among the goats. And that will be my wages. 33 So my righteousness will testify for me in future days when you go over my wages in front of you: any that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and dark-colored among the sheep, it was stolen if it is with me.”

34 And Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.” 35 Then on that 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-colored ones among the lambs. Then he gave them into the hand of his sons, 36 and he put a three-day journey between himself and Jacob. And Jacob was tending the rest of Laban’s flocks.

37 Then Jacob took for himself fresh-cut branches of poplar and almond and plane trees, and peeled white stripes in them, exposing the white that was inside the branches. 38 Then he put the branches that he had peeled in the troughs, in the water troughs where the flocks came to drink, in front of the flocks. And they were in heat when they came to drink, 39 and the flocks would mate by the branches, and the flocks would bear streaked, speckled, and spotted young. 40 Then Jacob set apart the lambs, and he made the faces of the flocks look at the streaked and all the dark-colored animals in the flocks of Laban. And he put flocks for himself by themselves, and he did not put them with the flocks of Laban.

41 So it happened whenever the strong animals were in heat, then Jacob put the branches in the troughs before the eyes of the flocks so that they would mate by the branches. 42 But when the animals were weak, he did not put them in. So it was the weak ones went to Laban, and the strong ones to Jacob, 43 so that the man prospered very greatly, and he owned large flocks, and maidservants and menservants and camels and donkeys.