Conference taveng::bagels

1517.0. "Jacob, his Uncle Laban, and the flocks" by CSC32::J_CHRISTIE (Spigot of pithiness) Fri Apr 04 1997 23:47

What does tradition say about the following, especially verses 37-39?
What is going on with these animals?

Genesis 30:32  I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from
thence all the speckled and �spotted� cattle, and all the brown
cattle among the sheep, and the �spotted� and speckled among the
goats: and [of such] shall be my hire.
30:33  So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to
come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face: every one
that [is] not speckled and �spotted� among the goats, and brown
among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.
30:34  And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according
to thy word.
30:35  And he removed that day the he goats that were
ringstreaked and �spotted,� and all the she goats that were
speckled and �spotted,� [and] every one that had [some] white in
it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave [them] into the
hand of his sons.
30:36  And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and
Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
30:37  And Jacob took him �rods� of green poplar, and of the
hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and
made the white appear which [was] in the �rods.�
30:38  And he set the rods which he had pilled before the
flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks
came to �drink,� that they should conceive when they came to
�drink.�
30:39  And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought
forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted.
30:40  And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of
the flocks toward the �ringstreaked,� and all the brown in the
flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and
put them not unto Laban's cattle.
30:41  And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did
conceive, that Jacob laid the �rods� before the eyes of the
cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the �rods.�
30:42  But when the cattle were feeble, he put [them] not in:
so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.