Bible Verses About Sheep: Jacob's management of

I will also go through the flock and pick out every speckled, spotted or brown sheep, and every speckled or spotted goat; these and their offspring will be my wages.

And I will let my integrity stand as witness against me in the future: when you come to look over the animals constituting my wages, every goat that isn't speckled or spotted and every sheep that isn't brown will count as stolen by me."

Lavan replied, "As you have said, so be it."

That day Lavan removed the male goats that were streaked or spotted and all the female goats that were speckled or spotted, every one with white on it, and all the brown sheep; turned them over to his sons;

and put three days' distance between himself and Ya'akov. Ya'akov fed the rest of Lavan's flocks.

Ya'akov took fresh-cut branches from poplar, almond and plane trees and made white streaks on them by peeling off the bark.

Then he set the rods he had peeled upright in the watering troughs, so that the animals would see them when they came to drink. And since they bred when they came to drink,

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

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.