Genesis 30:40
And Jacob separated the flock, and put the rods in the troughs before the eyes of the rams: and all the white and the black were Laban's: and the rest were Jacob's, when the flocks were separated one from the other.
Open Genesis 30:40 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Divisitque gregem Jacob, et posuit virgas in canalibus ante oculos arietum : erant autem alba et nigra quæque, Laban ; cetera vero, Jacob, separatis inter se gregibus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τοὺς δὲ ἀμνοὺς διέστειλεν Ἰακώβ, καὶ ἔστησεν ἐναντίον τῶν προβάτων κριὸν διάλευκον καὶ πᾶν ποικίλον ἐν τοῖς ἀμνοῖς· καὶ διεχώρισεν ἑαυτῷ ποίμνια καθ᾽ ἑαυτόν, καὶ οὐκ ἔμιξεν αὐτὰ εἰς τὰ πρόβατα Λαβάν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְהַכְּשָׂבִים֮ הִפְרִ֣יד יַעֲקֹב֒ וַ֠יִּתֵּן פְּנֵ֨י הַצֹּ֧אן אֶל עָקֹ֛ד וְכָל ח֖וּם בְּצֹ֣אן לָבָ֑ן וַיָּֽשֶׁת ל֤וֹ עֲדָרִים֙ לְבַדּ֔וֹ וְלֹ֥א שָׁתָ֖ם עַל צֹ֥אן לָבָֽן
Haydock's commentary
All the white, &c. Notwithstanding Jacob's stratagem, some had lambs all of a colour. The force of fancy is very surprising on such occasions. Oppian, Aristotle, and others, recommend Jacob's plan as consonant to nature. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine On the Holy Trinity, A Certain Trinity in the Sight. That There are Three Things in Sight, Which Differ in Their Own Nature. In What Manner from a Visible Thing Vision is Produced, or the Image of that Thing Which is Seen. The Matter is Shown More Clearly by an Example. How These Three Combine in One
5. The case then being so, let us remember how these three things, although diverse in nature, are tempered together into a kind of unity; that is, the form of the body which is seen, and the image of it impressed on the sense, which is vision or sense informed, and the will of the mind which applies the sense to the sensible thing, and retains the vision itself in it. The first of these, that is, the visible thing itself, does not belong to the nature of the living being, except when we discern our own body. But the second belongs to that nature to this extent, that it is wrought in the body, and through the body in the soul; for it is wrought in the sense, which is neither without the body nor without the soul. But the third is of the soul alone, because it is the will. …