Why did he peel the rods and place them in front of the sheep at the water troughs?  When he desired children, he married while resting his hope of children, not in marriage, but in God, who had established marriage.  So too he peeled the rods, not relying on them, but awaiting God's assistance.  Hence, he was accorded the vision of God and heard him say, "Lift up your eyes and see that the goats and rams mounting the she-goats are white and speckled, ashen and mottled.  For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.  I am the God who appeared to you in the place of God, where you anointed a pillar to me and made a vow to me (Gn 31:12)."  Since the grey and speckled ones had been a distance of three days (Gn 30:35), the champion of the wronged gave him this vision of speckled rams and goats mounting, so that Jacob would learn from his own experience the degree of providence enjoyed by those who trust in the God of the universe.





And he thrust: Heb. וַּיַּצֵג. The Targum renders וְדָעִיץ, an Aramaic term denoting thrusting and sticking in, of which there are many [examples] in the Talmud, [e.g.] (Shab. 50b):“he inserted it (דָּצָהּ) and pulled it out” ; and (Chul. 93b):“If he thrust (דָץ) something into it.” [The word] דָּצָהּ is like דְּעָצָהּ, but it is a contracted form.

into the gutters: Where the water was running, in pools made in the ground in which to water the flocks. — [from Mishnath Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 7]

where…would come, etc.: In the gutters where the animals would come to drink, he thrust the rods opposite the animals. — [from Targumim]

and they would come into heat, etc.: (Gen. Rabbah 73:10) The animal would see the rods, and she would be startled backwards. Then the male would mount her and she would give birth to offspring similar to him. Rabbi Hoshaya says: The water would become sperm in their innards, and they did not require a male, and that is the meaning of וַיֵחַמְנָה וגוֹ. (I.e, in this word, there is a combination of masculine and feminine forms, as mentioned by Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra.)




The trickery of Laban: After God gave Rachel also children Jacob wanted to leave. But Laban told Jacob he had learned by divination that God blessed him because of Jacob. So Jacob offered to take as his pay every one of the goats that was speckled and spotted, and all the black lambs.

Laban again used trickery: he came and took from the flock all that were the kind Jacob had said. He put them at three days distance from those that should go to Jacob. But Jacob with divine help took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane, and peeled them to make them striped. Jacob put the rods before the sheep at the watering place where they would mate, and put the striped rods before them. He also in this way got the stronger of the flock to breed for him.

Did Laban really receive a divine response? Possible. For God did favor Jacob. It might be also hat he used old rites of divination. The proposed division of the sheep was such that normally Jacob would get far fewer. But he used a trick -- in itself superstitious, but here with God's blessing. Of course getting the stronger to breed was merely normal practice.