But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s.
The verse records that when the cattle were feeble Jacob did not put them into the breeding arrangement, so the feebler offspring were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's. It belongs to the account of Jacob's sojourn with Laban and his departure from Syria for Palestine. It belongs to Genesis 29-31, the account of Jacob being deceived and setting out for home. It belongs to the checkered and unsatisfactory experiences of Esau and Jacob recorded in Genesis 27-31. It is part of the story of God's care for Jacob despite his selfishness and unfaithfulness.
The verse shows that God prospered and blessed Jacob's work while he served Laban in his flocks and herds, giving him the stronger cattle despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right, as part of the temporal blessing by which he returned to Canaan with a prosperous family and abundant flocks and herds. It shows Jacob's selfish plotting and his consequent suffering, illustrating how he overreached and supplanted others and himself met overreaching, and how God's providence, though seeming slow, brings retribution sooner or later.
The verse is among examples from the patriarchal age of conduct violating the institution of marriage, but such violations do not make marriage any less sacred, because marriage was instituted before the fall. It belongs to the record of Jacob's polygamous family, which proves that polygamy is always evil and wrong and causes very great unhappiness in every family where it enters, though it was long allowed among ancient Israel because of hardness of heart, contrary to God's original order in Eden. It shows that Jacob was a herdsman who cared for his flocks, teaching that necessary care for the life and welfare of stock, such as feeding and milking cows, feeding and watering horses, and feeding chickens and other fowls, reduced to a practical, merciful minimum, must be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day.
The verse records that when the cattle were feeble Jacob did not put them into the breeding arrangement, so the feebler offspring were Laban's and the stronger were Jacob's. It belongs to the account of Jacob's sojourn with Laban and his departure from Syria for Palestine. It belongs to Genesis 29-31, the account of Jacob being deceived and setting out for home. It belongs to the checkered and unsatisfactory experiences of Esau and Jacob recorded in Genesis 27-31. It is part of the story of God's care for Jacob despite his selfishness and unfaithfulness.
The verse shows that God prospered and blessed Jacob's work while he served Laban in his flocks and herds, giving him the stronger cattle despite Laban's efforts to deprive him of his right, as part of the temporal blessing by which he returned to Canaan with a prosperous family and abundant flocks and herds. It shows Jacob's selfish plotting and his consequent suffering, illustrating how he overreached and supplanted others and himself met overreaching, and how God's providence, though seeming slow, brings retribution sooner or later.
The verse is among examples from the patriarchal age of conduct violating the institution of marriage, but such violations do not make marriage any less sacred, because marriage was instituted before the fall. It belongs to the record of Jacob's polygamous family, which proves that polygamy is always evil and wrong and causes very great unhappiness in every family where it enters, though it was long allowed among ancient Israel because of hardness of heart, contrary to God's original order in Eden. It shows that Jacob was a herdsman who cared for his flocks, teaching that necessary care for the life and welfare of stock, such as feeding and milking cows, feeding and watering horses, and feeding chickens and other fowls, reduced to a practical, merciful minimum, must be performed on the Sabbath the same as on any day.