The Increase in Jacob’s Flocks: In this account Jacob negotiates his wages (30:25–36) and breeds the flocks to his advantage (30:37–43).

30:25–28 At the end of the fourteen years of labor, Jacob sought Laban’s permission to return to Canaan with his wives and children. His approach implies that Laban continued to have authority over his daughters’ departure from his household. Laban, however, entreated Jacob to stay on with him, claiming to have learned by divination that his prosperity was the result of Yahweh’s blessing him for Jacob’s sake (cf. 12:3). The reference to divination may be figurative or literal, but Laban affirmed that the gods had confirmed Jacob’s role in his increasing wealth. In a show of apparent magnanimity, he invited Jacob to set his own wages. Nevertheless, the foll…