8 Sometimes your father promised to give me all the spotty sheep and goats, and then all the sheep and goats had babies with spots on their wool. And sometimes he promised to give me all the stripy sheep and goats, and then all the sheep and goats had babies with stripes on their wool.
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.
8 If he said, The speckled shall be your wages, then all the flock bore speckled; and if he said, The streaked shall be your hire, then all the flock bore streaked.
8 If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the flock bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstreaked shall be thy wages; then bare all the flock ringstreaked.
8 If he said, ‘The speckled ones will be your payment,’ the whole flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, ‘The striped ones will be your payment,’ the whole flock gave birth to striped young.
8 Whenever he said, 'The speckled will be your wages,' all the sheep gave birth to speckled newborns. Yet truly, when he said the contrary, 'You will take whatever is white for your wages,' all the flocks gave birth to white ones.
Today, let me go to the place where you keep your sheep and goats, and let me take some of those sheep and goats for myself. You know, most of your sheep have white wool, and most of your goats have black wool. I will not take any of those white sheep or any of those black goats. But you have some funny coloured sheep and goats too. You have some spotty goats and some black sheep. I will take those funny coloured sheep and goats, and they will belong to me. They will be my pay.
So whenever the males and females did that, those spotty branches were there in front of them. Later on, when their baby animals were born, they had spots and stripes on their wool.