What does Genesis 30:35 mean?
After agreeing to Jacob's terms for his wages, Laban immediately finds a way to cheat. We see again that this man, Jacob's father-in-law and Rebekah's brother (Genesis 24:29), is a thoroughly dishonest man. Earlier, he treacherously claimed a local custom in order to cheat Jacob out of seven years of service, as well as indebting him to seven more (Genesis 29:18–30). Now, Laban again demonstrates that he's not above blatant sabotage in order to prosper.The agreement between Laban and Jacob was that Jacob would own every black sheep and mixed-color sheep or goat born among the flocks from this time forward. Fully white sheep and fully black goats were far more common, so the deal was already tipped in Laban's favor. Jacob is asking to only keep the uncommon, "defective" animals. At least in theory, Laban again stands to gain a great deal from this arrangement.
And yet, to improve his odds even more, Laban now acts to remove all of the mixed-color animals and black sheep from the existing herds and gives those to his sons. Spotted and speckled sheep and goats are mostly likely to be born to spotted and speckled parents. If Laban were to remove all of those at the start, only a very small percentage born in the remaining flock—if any—were likely to be black lambs or mixed-color sheep or goats. This is a cheat designed to turn Jacob's own plan against him. To further drive home his plan, Laban will also move these animals several days' journey away from Jacob (Genesis 30:36).
Genesis 30:25-43 describes Jacob's struggle to convince Laban to allow him to return to his own people with his wives and children, even though the 14 years of Jacob's contracted service have ended. Laban asks Jacob to name new wages to continue to work for him. Laban knows he has grown wealthy due to the Lord's blessing on Jacob. Jacob asks to own all the new off-color sheep and goats that will be born to Laban's flock. Laban agrees and quickly tries to cheat Jacob. Nevertheless, the Lord blesses Jacob's unusual breeding practices, causing so many off-color animals to be born in the flock that Jacob becomes a wealthy man in his own right. Soon he will leave Laban behind for good.
God alone gives children. He causes babies to be born. He even determines what color baby sheep and goats will be. Genesis 30 describes the urgent desire of Rachel and Leah to have sons for Jacob and how God hears and grants their prayers in His own time. In addition, God blesses Jacob's unusual breeding practices with Laban's flocks to finally allow Jacob to overcome his father-in-law's schemes to keep Jacob under his service.