Commentaria in Genesim
“variegated,” or of speckled fleece, in Hebrew nakud, that is, dotted, is what is marked with small white or black spots, as if with dots, and dotted.
AS WELL IN SHEEP AS IN GOATS—Some suppose from the Hebrew that Laban distinguished between sheep and goats in this way: that among the sheep only the purely white fell to Laban, and the dusky and variegated to Jacob; but among the goats the variegated and spotted were to be Jacob’s, the dusky and white Laban’s.
But our Interpreter requires the contrary, namely that as well in sheep as in goats the single-coloured fell to Laban, the many-coloured to Jacob; for the reasoning was the same for goats and sheep: and so in the Hebrew an imperative follows presently. But Jacob speaks of himself, as it was his part, having charge of the flock, to lead and arrange the cattle. Presently he turns his speech to Laban: separate, as if to say: Me passing today through all thy cattle, take away, I ask thee to take away, and set apart from them. For the rest, this whole passage is so obscure that Jerome already confessed in the Hebrew Questions that to the present day he had been unable to find anyone who explained clearly what is said in this place. You see three colours in all set in this verse: dotted, variegated with white and black, and dusky; the first two in general, in sheep as in goats, the dusky specially in sheep, and again the first two specially in goats. Jacob therefore asks that Laban separate only the dusky sheep, not likewise the dotted and variegated, and again, of the goats, only the dotted and variegated, not likewise the dusky. And my wages shall be, namely, every dusky, spotted or variegated one, which shall be born from the single-coloured, that is, the white or purely black left to me.
dusky, which is expressed in the sheep alone, is likewise, according to custom, to be understood and repeated in the goats.
33. SO MY JUSTICE SHALL ANSWER ME TOMORROW—as if to say: Nature of the cattle is on your side, that white be born of white, black of black; but with me shall be my justice, answering me, that is, rewarding me, since God, as I surely trust, will look upon my humility, and will reward and make up my labour with a just wage, which you try with an unjust bargain to turn away from me, by bringing it about that from your single-coloured there be born to me many-coloured. So St. Jerome.
Thus it is said in Isaias lix, 12: “Our sins have answered us,” as if to say: Our sins, questioned as it were by God the judge, have professed the truth, namely that we did them, and so have testified that we are guilty of punishment, and have condemned us to it; and thus it is asked of us, and it cries that we are sinners; and Osee v, 5: “The arrogance of Israel shall answer (testify, cry out, accuse) in his face,” that is, publicly, openly, reverencing nothing its author. Hence it is plain that good as well as evil actions of men are witnesses of their holiness or wickedness, and openly give their testimony before God the judge, nay, if they are enormous, cry to heaven. This then is the consolation of the just man, of the Martyr, that with St. Lawrence he say: “Thou hast tried me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me”; and hence arises an incredible joy and greatness of soul, so that he despises and laughs at all grievous things and torments. Hear the spirit of our Martyr Ogilby, who in this year 1615 was the first in Scotland to suffer death for the orthodox faith. When for eight whole days the executioners had forced him to keep ceaselessly awake by constantly pricking him with styluses, needles and pins, and threatened leg-breaking greaves and every most bitter thing, the athlete of Christ answered: “Excellent executioners, I make nothing of you all in this cause; do as your heretical malice bids: I care not for you; I have asked no one, I shall never ask, I have always scorned; I can and will gladly suffer more for this cause than you with all your might can inflict. Cease to cast such things at me; foist these upon frantic women. These things inflame me, they do not dismay me: I laugh at them no otherwise than at the cackling of so many geese.” He said it and did it, nay pressed them; and exacted from them what they had promised, that they should inflict the torments they threatened. To those who marvelled he said: “I glory in the cause, and triumph in such a penalty; we can do all things in him who strengthens us.”
WHEN THE TIME OF THE AGREEMENT SHALL COME—when, according to thy agreement and covenant, at the end of the year the young are to be divided, so that the many-coloured fall to me, the single-coloured to thee.
THEY SHALL ACCUSE ME OF THEFT—if namely thou find with me, in the flock proper to me, single-coloured young, or others than many-coloured, contrary to the covenant made with thee; as if to say: Faithfully will I deliver to thee the single-coloured, the many-coloured I will keep for myself; nothing of the single-coloured will I secretly steal or hide.
35. AND HE SEPARATED.—Some suppose, from the words of verse 38 which follow immediately, that this was another and second covenant of Laban with Jacob: for when he saw that the first covenant had turned out happily for Jacob, and that all the young were born many-coloured, they suppose that for this reason he now changed the covenant and wished the contrary, namely that the many-coloured should fall to himself, the single-coloured to Jacob. But this is not likely: for the very context of the history shows that only the execution of the first covenant is here narrated.
AND HE DELIVERED THE WHOLE FLOCK OF ONE COLOUR INTO THE HAND OF HIS SONS.—Abulensis, Lyranus, Lipomanus and Cajetan think that our text here is faulty and must be emended by adding a negative, not; as though Laban had delivered to his sons to pasture the not single-coloured, that is, the many-coloured, but the single-coloured to Jacob, so that from these likewise single-coloured young should be born, which were to fall not to Jacob but to himself: for the Hebrew seems to signify this. But those words are intricate and can be rendered the contrary way, and so you may well render them with our version thus: “every one in which was whiteness, and every black one among the lambs” (that is, all the single-coloured lambs) “he delivered into the hands of his sons.”
Second, Pererius excuses our Interpreter, saying that there is here a hysterologia, as if to say: Laban delivered the single-coloured to his sons, not now, but after the lambing of the sheep, which is narrated at the end of the chapter. But this too seems harsh and strained.
I say therefore that Laban delivered the single-coloured sheep to his sons to pasture, over whom, namely, Jacob presided and was set. For in the preceding verse he had entrusted to Jacob his whole flock, to which he added also his sons, after the custom of shepherds, as keepers, lest Jacob by guile, against the covenant, secretly withdraw the single-coloured sheep: so in the following chapter, verse 43, the same Laban calls Jacob’s household his own. Laban therefore delivered to Jacob, with his other sons, the single-coloured sheep and goats, hoping that from them likewise single-coloured young would be born to himself; but the many-coloured sheep he separated, and reserved to himself to be pastured with his servants, lest Jacob, pasturing them, should thence demand by the covenant all the many-coloured young that were, as it seemed, to be born.
OF BLACK FLEECE.—The Hebrew chum here signifies black; for it is opposed to laban, that is, white. But in verse 32, chum signifies dusky, or subdusky, because it is joined with spotted and variegated.
36. A SPACE OF THREE DAYS’ JOURNEY—lest his many-coloured sheep might be mingled, whether by sight or by mating, with the single-coloured which Jacob pastured, and thus many-coloured young should be begotten, which were to fall not to him but to Jacob. So Lipomanus.
37. JACOB THEREFORE TOOK GREEN RODS OF POPLAR.—Note the industry and stratagem of Jacob, which, himself taught by angels in dreams, as is gathered from the following chapter, verse 11, he opposed to Laban’s violence and human prudence.
You will say: Jacob by this art, as by fraud, violated the contract made with Laban; and so he deceitfully and unjustly acquired Laban’s property. For the contract, that the single-coloured to be born should fall to Laban, the many-coloured to Jacob, by the common mind of the contracting parties was understood of those that should be born such naturally and by chance, not by art and fraud.