And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.
Laban's answer is his acceptance of Jacob's proposed terms and arrangement for wages. Under that bargain the spotted and speckled goats and black sheep taken out of Laban's flocks would become Jacob's own. The agreement belongs to Jacob's years of labor for Laban, when God blessed his work and caused him to gain abundant flocks and herds. It was a prospering in flocks and herds in spite of Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right.
The transaction falls within Jacob's checkered and unsatisfactory experiences. There his selfish plotting and overreaching and pursuit of material advantage were followed by suffering and by being overreached in turn. Such conduct shows the fitness of his name, meaning supplanter. It illustrates that God's providence may seem slow, but retribution comes sooner or later.
The chapter to which the verse belongs shows a plain violation of the marriage institution on the part of the patriarchs. That violation does not destroy the sacred character of marriage, just as a violation of the Sabbath would not destroy the sacred character of the Sabbath. Marriage was made for man before the fall, its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue, and the seventh commandment guards its sacredness. The verse belongs likewise to the record of Jacob's polygamous household, which shows that polygamy was never anything but evil and wrong, bringing very great unhappiness into every family where it entered.
The verse shows Jacob, by agreement with Laban, living on the premises as a herdsman responsible for cattle and stock in tending the flocks. His charge included the daily feeding, milking, watering and care needed for the life and welfare of the animals. That necessary care, reduced to a practical, merciful minimum, was to be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day. The account of Jacob's cattle, with their varied markings, serves as an image of lack of agreement within a former religious group.
Laban's answer is his acceptance of Jacob's proposed terms and arrangement for wages. Under that bargain the spotted and speckled goats and black sheep taken out of Laban's flocks would become Jacob's own. The agreement belongs to Jacob's years of labor for Laban, when God blessed his work and caused him to gain abundant flocks and herds. It was a prospering in flocks and herds in spite of Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right.
The transaction falls within Jacob's checkered and unsatisfactory experiences. There his selfish plotting and overreaching and pursuit of material advantage were followed by suffering and by being overreached in turn. Such conduct shows the fitness of his name, meaning supplanter. It illustrates that God's providence may seem slow, but retribution comes sooner or later.
The chapter to which the verse belongs shows a plain violation of the marriage institution on the part of the patriarchs. That violation does not destroy the sacred character of marriage, just as a violation of the Sabbath would not destroy the sacred character of the Sabbath. Marriage was made for man before the fall, its sanctity is not derived from the Decalogue, and the seventh commandment guards its sacredness. The verse belongs likewise to the record of Jacob's polygamous household, which shows that polygamy was never anything but evil and wrong, bringing very great unhappiness into every family where it entered.
The verse shows Jacob, by agreement with Laban, living on the premises as a herdsman responsible for cattle and stock in tending the flocks. His charge included the daily feeding, milking, watering and care needed for the life and welfare of the animals. That necessary care, reduced to a practical, merciful minimum, was to be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day. The account of Jacob's cattle, with their varied markings, serves as an image of lack of agreement within a former religious group.