32 Today let me go through all your flocks. I will take every speckled or spotted sheep, every black lamb, and every spotted or speckled goat. That will be my pay.
33 In the future you can easily see if I am honest. When you come to look at my flocks, if I have any goat that isn’t speckled or spotted or any lamb that isn’t black, you will know I stole it.”
34 Laban answered, “Agreed! We will do what you ask.”
35 But that day Laban took away all the male goats that had streaks or spots, all the speckled and spotted female goats (all those that had white on them), and all the black sheep. He told his sons to watch over them.
36 Then he took these animals to a place that was three days’ journey away from Jacob. Jacob took care of all the flocks that were left.
37 So Jacob cut green branches from poplar, almond, and plane trees and peeled off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them.
38 He put the branches in front of the flocks at the watering places. When the animals came to drink, they also mated there,