And he set three days’ journey betwixt himself and Jacob: and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.
Genesis 30:36 belongs to the account of Jacob's years of sojourning and serving with Laban in Syria, in Haran and Padan-aram, which included the birth of his sons there and preceded his departure for Palestine. It belongs to the account of the sons born to Jacob in Haran and of his work there in which God blessed his labor and prospered him with abundant flocks and herds despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right. It belongs to the account of Jacob's trials and victories that led to his change of heart and his place among the Israel of God.
Laban set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was left to feed and tend the rest of Laban's flocks as his regular charge. That arrangement belongs to the years in which the deceiver was deceived, for Jacob met overreaching in return for his own overreaching and supplanting. It was part of a checkered and unsatisfactory experience in which selfish plotting brings suffering and God's providence, though seeming slow, brings retribution sooner or later.
The chapter around the verse presents Jacob's polygamous household as proof that polygamy caused very great unhappiness in every family where it entered and was never anything but evil and wrong, though it was tolerated by Moses because of hardness of heart. Jacob's feeding of the flocks shows that caring for livestock is necessary work for the life and welfare of people and stock. Cows have to be fed and milked, horses have to be fed and watered, and chickens and other fowls likewise, and such chores reduced to a practical merciful minimum must be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day, as was done by Jacob and also by Amos, David, and Abraham with their flocks.
Genesis 30:36 belongs to the account of Jacob's years of sojourning and serving with Laban in Syria, in Haran and Padan-aram, which included the birth of his sons there and preceded his departure for Palestine. It belongs to the account of the sons born to Jacob in Haran and of his work there in which God blessed his labor and prospered him with abundant flocks and herds despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right. It belongs to the account of Jacob's trials and victories that led to his change of heart and his place among the Israel of God.
Laban set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob was left to feed and tend the rest of Laban's flocks as his regular charge. That arrangement belongs to the years in which the deceiver was deceived, for Jacob met overreaching in return for his own overreaching and supplanting. It was part of a checkered and unsatisfactory experience in which selfish plotting brings suffering and God's providence, though seeming slow, brings retribution sooner or later.
The chapter around the verse presents Jacob's polygamous household as proof that polygamy caused very great unhappiness in every family where it entered and was never anything but evil and wrong, though it was tolerated by Moses because of hardness of heart. Jacob's feeding of the flocks shows that caring for livestock is necessary work for the life and welfare of people and stock. Cows have to be fed and milked, horses have to be fed and watered, and chickens and other fowls likewise, and such chores reduced to a practical merciful minimum must be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day, as was done by Jacob and also by Amos, David, and Abraham with their flocks.