Genesis 30:35
And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked 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.
Genesis 30:35 records Laban separating out the ringstraked and spotted he-goats, and the speckled and spotted she-goats and every one with white in it, and the brown among the sheep, and putting them into the hand of his sons. This belongs to the account of Jacob's sojourn with Laban, including his marriages to Leah and Rachel, his years of service, and his departure from Syria for Palestine. In its setting Laban was working to deprive Jacob of his rightful share of the flocks and herds.
God prospered Jacob in his flocks and herds despite Laban's efforts to take his right away. God blessed Jacob's labor in Padan-aram with abundant flocks and herds, and that temporal prosperity was part of the blessing God gave him. The verse falls within Jacob's checkered and unsatisfactory experience, marked by selfish plotting and suffering. It is included in the account of his unsatisfactory experience marked by material overreaching, and of his troubled dealings marked by selfish plotting, overreaching, and suffering.
Jacob, who had overreached others, was himself overreached in these dealings, showing that God's providence brings retribution sooner or later. The verse is evidence that the eighth commandment against stealing and taking another's goods and property was known before the law was proclaimed at Sinai. The chapter to which it belongs shows that misconduct by the patriarchs could violate the marriage institution without making marriage itself less sacred, since marriage was established before the fall and its sanctity does not depend on its later protection in the Ten Commandments.
The verse belongs to the record of Jacob's family that shows polygamy is evil and wrong and brings very great unhappiness into every family where it enters. Though it was allowed among God's ancient people through the whole Old Testament period because of hardness of heart, it never ceased to be wrong, having received a terrible rebuke when it first entered the church, with the true standard remaining the original order in Eden. The varied markings of Jacob's cattle described in the verse illustrate beliefs that are called uniform but are in fact inconsistent and changeable. Jacob's care for his flocks as a herdsman, like that of Amos, David, and Abraham, shows that care for the life and welfare of people and stock requires doing what is actually necessary on the Sabbath the same as on any day, such as feeding and milking cows, feeding and watering horses, and feeding chickens and other fowls, always reduced to a practical, merciful minimum.