And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
Laban trusted to the course of nature, whereby cattle usually bring forth their young of their own colour; and Jacob relied upon the providence of an Almighty God, and his gracious Father.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Laban said,…. Being well pleased with the proposal Jacob made, as knowing that, generally speaking, cattle of a colour produced those that were of the same; and whereas Jacob proposed to have a flock of sheep of only white in colour, committed to his care, and to have such for his own that should be produced of them, that were speckled, spotted, and brown, Laban concluded from the general nature of things that he could have but very few, if any, and therefore was for striking the bargain at once:
behold, I would it might be according to thy word; he agreed it should be as Jacob had settled it, and he hoped and wished he would abide by it; he was afraid he would not keep to it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Laban cheerfully accepted the proposal, but did not leave Jacob to make the selection. He undertook that himself, probably to make more sure, and then gave those which were set apart as Jacob’s wages to his own sons to tend, since it was Jacob’s duty to take care of Laban’s flock, and “ set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob, ” i.e., between the flock to be tended by himself through his sons, and that to be tended by Jacob, for the purpose of preventing any copulation between the animals of the two flocks. Nevertheless he was overreached by Jacob, who adopted a double method of increasing the wages agreed upon. In the first place (Gen 30:37-39), he took fresh rods of storax, maple, and walnut-trees, all of which have a dazzling white wood under their dark outside, and peeled white stripes upon them, (the verbal noun instead of the inf. abs. ), “ peeling the white naked in the rods.” These partially peeled, and therefore mottled rods, he placed in the drinking-troughs ( lit., gutters, from = to run, is explained by water-troughs), to which the flock came to drink, in front of the animals, in order that, if copulation took place at the drinking time, it might occur near the mottled sticks, and the young be speckled and spotted in consequence. a rare, antiquated form for from , and for imperf. Kal of = . This artifice was founded upon a fact frequently noticed, particularly in the case of sheep, that whatever fixes their attention in copulation is marked upon the young (see the proofs in Bochart, Hieroz. 1, 618, and Friedreich zur Bibel 1, 37ff.). – Secondly (Gen 30:40), Jacob separated the speckled animals thus obtained from those of a normal colour, and caused the latter to feed so that the others would be constantly in sight, in order that he might in this way obtain a constant accession of mottled sheep. As soon as these had multiplied sufficiently, he formed separate flocks (viz., of the speckled additions), “ and put them not unto Laban’s cattle; ” i.e., he kept them apart in order that a still larger number of speckled ones might be procured, through Laban’s one-coloured flock having this mottled group constantly in view.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Gen 30:34 And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
Ver. 34. Behold, I would it might be. ] He was glad to have him on the hip for a bad bargain, but is fairly deceived himself. God will see to his servants, that they shall not lose all: though the world think it neither sin nor pity to defraud them of their due.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Num 22:29, 1Co 7:7, 1Co 14:5, Gal 5:12
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 30:34. Laban was willing to consent to this bargain, because he thought, that if those few he had that were now speckled and spotted were separated from the rest, the body of the flock, which Jacob was to tend, being of one colour, either all black or all white, would produce few or none of mixed colours, and so he should have Jacobs service for nothing, or next to nothing.