Genesis 31:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

Hath changed my wages ten times That is, oft-times, as is often the signification of the number ten. It appears that Laban, through envy and covetousness, often broke his agreement made with Jacob, and altered it as he thought fit, and that Jacob patiently yielded to all such changes Then all the cattle bare speckled This seems to put it out of doubt, that, as Jacob says in the following verse, it was indeed God who ordered this matter; for it can scarcely be supposed that any natural causes whatever, without his peculiar providence, could produce so many different changes in a thing of this nature, without once failing.

Genesis 31:7-8

7 And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.

8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.