John Calvin Commentary Genesis 30:31

"And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not give me aught: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed thy flock and keep it." — Genesis 30:31 (ASV)

Thou shalt not give me anything. The contrast between this and the preceding clause should be noted. For Jacob does not demand for himself certain and definite wages; instead, he proposes to Laban that he will receive whatever offspring born from the pure and uniformly colored sheep and goats prove to be particolored and spotted.

There is indeed some obscurity in the words. At first, Jacob seems to require the spotted sheep for himself as a present reward. But from the thirty-third verse (Genesis 30:33), another meaning can be gathered: namely, that Jacob would allow whatever was variegated in the flock to be separated and given to Laban’s sons to tend, while he himself would retain the unspotted sheep and goats.

And certainly, it would be absurd for Jacob to now claim part of the flock for himself, when he had just confessed that until now he had made no gain. Moreover, the gain acquired in this way would have been more than was just, and there was no hope that this could be obtained from Laban.

A question, however, arises: by what hope or by what counsel had Jacob been induced to propose this condition? A little later, Moses will relate that he had used cunning so that particolored and spotted lambs might be born from the pure flock. But in the following chapter, he more fully declares that Jacob had been divinely instructed to act this way (Genesis 31:1).

Therefore, although it was improbable in itself that this agreement would prove useful to the holy man, he nevertheless obeyed the celestial oracle and wished to be enriched in no other way than according to the will of God. Laban, however, was dealt with according to his own disposition; for he eagerly seized what seemed advantageous to himself, but God thwarted his shameful cupidity.