Genesis 31:8

Gen 31:8 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.

Ver. 8. Ring-straked.] {See Trapp on "Gen 30:39"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8. If he said thus] Applying to Laban the proposal made by Jacob in Gen_30:32.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father,.... Not all of them, see Gen 31:19; but a great part of them; his flock was much lessened by those means, and more were taken away, and came to Jacob's share, than if Laban had abode by the original agreement:

and gave them to me; who has the disposing of all things in the world, whose the world, and all in it, are, and gives of it to the sons of men as he pleases. Jacob takes no notice of any artifice of his, or of any means and methods he made use of, but wholly ascribes all to the providence of God, and points to his wives the hand of God only; and indeed it seems to be by his direction that he took the method he did, as appears from Gen 31:11.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

All, or the far greatest part, so that I was exceedingly enriched. (Menochius) --- The Septuagint here agrees with the Vulgate. But the Hebrew and other versions, instead of white ones, read of divers colours, or ring-streaked, which takes away th intended opposition. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

All the cattle. All is here, as oft elsewhere, put for the greater or the better part, as appears from Gen 31:1,8. Or, for all that Jacob desired to be such.

The ring-straked shall be thy hire; hence it appears that Laban through envy and covetousness did break his agreement made with Jacob, and altered it as he thought meet, and that Jacob patiently yielded to all such changes.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If he (i.e. Laban) said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; by the original contract Jacob had been promised all the parti-coloredanimals; (Gen_30:32) here it seems as if Laban, struck with the remarkable increase of these, took the earliest opportunity of so modifying the original stipulation as to limit Jacob"s portion to one sort only, viz. the speckled. Yet this dishonorable breach of faith on the part of Laban was of no avail; for, when the next lambing season camethen (it was discovered that) all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus (changing the sort of animals assigned to his son-in-law), The ringstraked shall be thy hire (the result was as before); then bare all the cattle ringstraked.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

IF HE SAID THUS: THE SPECKLED SHALL BE THY WAGES. The meaning thereof is that at first Laban agreed to give Jacob the two appearances the speckled and the spotted — also the brownish lambs. Then he retracted and agreed to give him another color, and thus he changed it every year. The flocks, however, gave birth accordingly. This was not due to the power of the sticks, for he was telling them of the deed of the Great G-d who treated him wondrously each and every year, just as he said, But G-d suffered him not to do me evil. It is also possible that Laban changed his wages after the flocks became pregnant and gave birth in accordance with Jacob’s will, it pleasing the Creator to do so. [In this case, it clearly was not due to the power of the sticks.] And so we find in Bereshith Rabbah: “The Holy One, blessed be He, foresaw what Laban was destined to do to our father Jacob, and He created the form of the sheep to conform to the colors Laban was to stipulate. Thus, it is not written here, ‘If he said (amar) thus,’ but it is written, ‘If he will say (yomar) thus,’” [indicating that G-d foresaw what Laban was destined to stipulate to Jacob].

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

אם כה... כל הצאן, the word כל need not be understood literally as “all.” It means simply: “most.” We have many examples in Scripture when the word כל does not mean “all,” but “most.” A well known example is Genesis 41,55 וכל הארץ באו מצרימה, which cannot mean that everybody came to Egypt, but must mean that most people from the neighbouring countries sent representatives to Egypt to buy food there during the famine in their own land. Although in our verse onlyנקודים and עקודים are mentioned specifically, the same applies to טלאים.

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.