Verses 37-43 describe the way in which Jacob outwits his uncle and increases his wealth in animals. It is the cunning of the young nephew against the older uncle that enables Jacob to overcome Laban and become a rich man. Jacob’s methods for producing spotted animals reveal his cunning behavior and should be understood as tricks and not as facts of animal breeding. According to what Jacob says to his wives in 31.9-12, it is God who causes these tricks to succeed.

There are really three different tricks that Jacob played with Laban’s flocks:
dit Trick 1dit* is described in verses 37-39. By peeling some of the bark from the branches of certain trees, Jacob causes them to have a striped appearance. He then places these where the flocks see them as they come to mate, and this causes the females to give birth to striped and spotted offspring.
dit Trick 2dit* is described in verse 40 and is similar to Trick 1. In this case Jacob separates out the mating females of the flock and causes them to be looking at only the black and striped animals; this also has the effect of causing them to give birth to striped and spotted kids, and black lambs.
dit Trick 3dit* is described in verses 41-42 and may be seen as a refinement of Trick 1. In this case Jacob uses Trick 1 only when the stronger animals in the flock are mating, and not when the weaker animals are mating. By this selective breeding Jacob builds up his flock from the strongest of Laban’s stock.

Then Jacob took fresh rods of poplar and almond and plane: rods refers to sticks that have been cut from branches of a tree. In this case the branches are green, still growing, fresh. To make clear that they are green branches, it may be clearer to say “cut green branches from … trees.” For poplar|fig:ffb_Poplar.htm, almond|fig:ffb_Almond.htm, and plane|fig:ffb_Plane.htm see Fauna and Flora of the Bible. These trees may not be known in the area of the translation. Other names of trees may need to be substituted. The important point is that, where these branches have the bark peeled, the exposed area is white. In some cases it may be necessary to use borrowed words for these trees. A general expression may also be used such as “new young branches of trees, three kinds” or “branches of three kinds of trees that had white wood.”

Peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the rods: peeled means removed the bark or cut away the bark. However, he did not remove all the bark but rather peeled it in sections so that the branch had strips of peeled areas and strips of bark covered areas. The areas where the bark was removed were white. In this way the branch had alternating strips of light and dark colors. Good News Translation provides a satisfactory model for many languages: “and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Genesis. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1997. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .