Jacob's Livestock Breeding Experiment 

From a retired shepherdess, there is a specific breed of sheep known as Jacob sheep. They are, from my experience, a very hardy and very independent breed. Much harder to shepherd than other breeds of sheep, because of their independent ways. They are multi-colored, spotted, stripped, and have at least 4 horns some have 6. It is believed that this is because they are a crossbreed or hybridized cross between sheep and goats. They are more goat-like than sheep-like. The sticks that are mentioned here might be for holding the female still by the horns so that the males can breed. Also, it might have been used to identify which females were bred to which males, kind of a breeding record. Today, we use colored marking paint. Each male may have its own color that rubs off on the females, or the shepherd marks the females with whatever color assigned to specific rams, so you know which ram bred which female. It is thought that cross-breeding sheep with goats makes for a stronger more viable versatile utility animal. (Wool, meat, milk, hides) Inbreeding or linebreeding of Laban's all-white flock would have made his flock weaker and not as hardy. So, Jacob knew which sheep and goats would be good to create a stronger flock and also knew that inbreeding of Laban's sheep would produce all white inbred sheep that were more susceptible to disease.

Thanks for your explanation. I'm teaching a Sunday School lesson on Genesis 30 and this video was helpful.

Laban: I cheated a cheater what's wrong with that? *Insert Toph voice*

Thank you! Im on my 5th time reading the bible (genesis to rev) this is a very good explanation for me. God Bless!

Thank you so much for this explanation. I just finished reading the chapter and on some level I kinda felt like Jacob was being a cheat so I decided to do a bit more study on it. Love how you incorporated modern explanation along with biblical knowledge. God bless keep doing what you're doing.

The livestock are prey animals, so camouflage is essential for survival. It seems plausible that seeing the branches may have triggered a response (epigenetic?) in the breeding animals to cause their offspring to be camouflaged according to what they were looking at.

Thank you for this ! God bless you

There are also the spiritual interpretations by the church fathers. In the OT all stick or wood mentions point to the cross. Also, flocks being parted also points to the parables like that of the sheep and goats. So here its shown how those who look at the cross will be counted among the strong. As they are made strong through faith, grace. Another common symbol, the water, and the rod in the water, as water flowed from Jesus, again the graces that flow from His sacrifice, namely baptism. Similar symbology when Moses throws a stick to the waters to make them potable. The entire OT is a pointer to Christ.

Happy to receive this awesome content- Thankyou for sharing ;helps much for under-standing.

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 so interesting ! I didn’t know what I was reading so I came to YT to check an explanation. Great stuff, praise God !

to defraud Laban in the process that Jacob set up would be sinful even if Laban had defrauded Laban over and over. Unless the appropriate authority was in place to make Laban pay restitution to Jacob, vengeance is always the Lord's. I think what ended up happening was vengeance was the Lord's (and not Jacob's) and God caused Jacob's handiwork to continue to prosper even under this process. If Laban was actually doing the work, he may have known what Jacob had in mind and then would not agree to the arrangement. I imagine Laban was a lazy man (as beguilers usually are) and knew little of shepherding. What little he did know about it was actually no service to him since he though Jacob was making him an offer that was too good to be true. Now, some might say, if everything I just said was true, that Jacob was indeed defrauding Laban through this arrangement and breeding process. Not so. Jacob was acting as shrewdly as a serpent but as innocent as a dove. What comes to mind is the Hebrew midwives and Pharoah and the wise men and King Herod. Jacob still had to rely on the Lord to bless his arrangement in that the Lord would see the normal course of breeding would render the desired result. There was always a chance albeit small, since Jacob was an expert shepherd, that this arrangement could fail anywhere between a break even or miserable defeat. Jacob's deception (not defrauding) of Laban didn't rely on taking anything that was rightfully Laban's. Consider Jesus' parable of the hidden treasure. The man finds a hidden treasure, sells everything he has so that he can go buy this piece of land. Besides all of the implications of the parable as it relates to the Jews were given the hidden treasure (but didn't know or refused to know they already had it) and salvation, this also has implications for economic dealings as well. Jacob was essentially putting everything on the line in order to obtain the hidden treasure and it was because he knew something that Laban (the landowner in the parable) didn't know, but should have known. One shouldn't depart from property so willingly without knowing what exactly it is that they have already in their possession. Also, once shouldn't let go of property so impulsively, like Esau didn't with his birthright or the countryman who killed his goose that gave him golden eggs just so he could get to all of them all at once (didn't work).

Hi Dr. Carter, I'm so glad you are tackling this common objection I get from evolutionists.

So good thank you for this discussion. I was watching with my children.

This was good. Thank you so much for your sacrifice of time and research.

I love this. ❤️ Thank you. Praise God for you.

Very interesting video. I have my own 15 year experiment witha goat herd going

The secret of Jacob’s flock: (Gen 31:10) “And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled.”

That was beautiful. The pictore of them wearing coloured wool. Thank you

I have always thought white rods had something to do with marking some of the livestock. I raised cattle and we would use chalks or paint to mark certain animals. You can even put a stationary marker in place to show you which animals go to certain places.

This is was very helpful. Thank you.

fascinating.

GOD BLESS YOU Brother , Really helpful

Thanks for that, brother, very useful.

Helpful thanks

Thank you. That really explains a lot. 😊

Here's my take from the reading. It may seem far-fetched but I think the branches are the same size as a sheep and goats peinis. He exposes the white part in the water troughs because it would stimulate the female of the flocks which was make them more receptive which would encourage males to mate with them all the more. The branches weren't striped but stripped to expose the white to resemble the male sex organ.

great video

Thank you!!

thanks for sharing

Very interesting.

Great video. I suspect Laban's statement “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older" might also carry a hint of social revenge. Laban surely knew Jacob cheated his older brother out of his inheritance. This might be Laban's way of dishing out Jacob's comeuppance. Just a thought.

I have seen a PBS documentary where they started with two black wolves and ended up with one or two white ones. It was not that many generations. I have tried to track it down, but have not had any success. This was in pre-internet days, so it may have never been digitized.

Just checking this out because I used to raise and herd a breed of sheep called Jacob sheep. I wanted to see if there was any connection.

CAN ANYONE HERE NAME A ANIMAL OR A VISUAL CIRCUMSTANCE THAT THAT ANIMAL COULD HAVE THAT WOULD AFFECT ITS OFFSPRING? DONT YOU THINK WE WOULDVE SEEN THIS IN SOME OTHER SPECIED BY NOW OR ATLEAST SOMETHING SIMILAIR

May be acvording to science , i dont know , but acording to bible all fathers and prophets were prophetizing about jusus . So Jacob was making miracle and prophetaizing about jusus to come ( Fulll God and full man , the two colours were simbolized.) The water was a simbol to bibtisim and the sheeps were the folowers or the christians to look like him . And the vesel of the watet was the simbol of church.

Cool

I could be wrong completely with my comment

But God

you are not telling the story correctly!

So interesting to hear a smart guy try to support fantastical myths against all evidence. Also, kindly stop the creative reading. The book clearly says Jacob got his magical results by use of striped sticks. Love the part about Jacob was not committing fraud because his fraud was aimed at a fraudster. Again, if you interpret everything creatively, it's not the word of God, it's your word.

First of all, you’re reading the wrong Bible version. 🤦‍♂️

The fact that you can defend this just shows how unreasonable you are. If this one thing was gotten wrong in the bible, how many other things? Oh yeah, EVERYTHING!!! I welcome any challengers to change my mind. But remember, I will treat you just how you treat me.

Shhhh, I see that happening thru television and all modern media, transforming people today. The magic, the hocus pocus is everywhere.

First of all, you’re reading the wrong Bible version. 🤦‍♂️