Beyond the narrative’s focused
nature, most important here is a series of reversals that unfold on several
levels. Regarding the individual characters, Song-Mi Park has pointed out the
initial similarity between Laban, Jacob, and the color of their flocks. Laban’s
white flocks match his name, while Jacob is associated with the darker speckled
flocks—note the similarity between יַעֲקֹב and עׇקֹד (‘streaked’) and through
that with נָקֹד (‘speckled’). Jacob changes this stippled association by using פְּצָלוֹת
לְבָנוֹת—white stripes as well as white poplar (לבְנֶה)—to affect the birthing
of the flocks as speckled and spotted. These reversals resonate on the familial
level as well. The fact that Jacob is now the shepherd of Laban’s flocks places
him in a paradoxical relationship with his uncle, both the guardian of his
sheep and goats and the one who transforms those animals to his own advantage.
This we come to appreciate, is precisely analogous to his relationship with
Leah and Rachel—Jacob is the ‘keeper’ of Laban’s daughters but also the one who
transforms them from daughters into wives, and their offspring into his own
sons. (George Savran, Jacob: Conflicted Twin, Aggrieved Patriarch [Hebrew
Bible Monographs 113; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2025], 141-42)