Genesis 30:41

41 Whenever the hardier animals came into heat, Ya'akov would set up the rods in the watering troughs; so that the animals would see them and conceive in front of them;

Genesis 30:41 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:41

And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did
conceive
Whose limbs were well compact, and were strong and healthy: that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters,
that they might conceive among the rods;
and bring forth party coloured ones, and such as were robust and strong like themselves; and this was another device of Jacob's to get the best of the flock. Aben Ezra thinks this refers to the two seasons of the year, when the flocks conceived; the one was in Nisan, in the spring, and such as were brought on that conception were strong, and therefore Jacob chose to lay the rods in the gutters at that time, that he might have the best cattle; and so the Targum of Jonathan calls these here the forward ones, as it does those in ( Genesis 30:42 ) we render feeble, the latter ones; which, according to Aben Ezra, conceived in Tisri or September, and what they brought were weak and feeble. (Based on the laws of genetics, Jacob's breeding of the best of the flock would produce higher quality offspring. Ed.)

Genesis 30:41 In-Context

39 the animals mated in sight of the rods and gave birth to streaked, speckled and spotted young.

40 Ya'akov divided the lambs and had the animals mate with the streaked and the brown in the flock of Lavan. He also kept his own livestock separate and did not have them mix with Lavan's flock.

41 Whenever the hardier animals came into heat, Ya'akov would set up the rods in the watering troughs; so that the animals would see them and conceive in front of them;

42 but he didn't set up the rods in front of the weaker animals. Thus the more feeble were Lavan's and the stronger Ya'akov's.

43 In this way the man became very rich and had large flocks, along with male and female slaves, camels and donkeys.