Charles Ellicott Commentary Genesis 30:32

"I will pass through all thy flock to-day, removing from thence every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and [of such] shall be my hire." — Genesis 30:32 (ASV)

The speckled and spotted cattle (sheep).—In the East, sheep are generally white, and goats black or brown. Jacob, therefore, proposes that all such animals are to belong to Laban, but that the parti-colored ones should be his wages. By “speckled” are meant those sheep and goats that had small spots on their coats, and by “spotted,” those that had large patches of another color. Besides these, Jacob is to have all “brown cattle,” that is, sheep, because the word “cattle” is usually now confined to cows, which was not the case 200 years ago.

This translation is taken from Rashi, but the word usually means black. Philippsohn says that black sheep are rarely seen in the East, but that sheep of a blackish-red color are common. In Genesis 30:35, we find another word, “ring-straked,” that is, having the colors in stripes. This is never the case with sheep, but goats often have their coats distinctly marked in this way.