two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,

He took him away from following the mother sheep, ¹  and made him the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and of Israel, his chosen nation. ² 

“I have been with you for the past twenty years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks.

Your teeth are like a flock of newly-shorn sheep coming up from the washing place; ¹  each of them has a twin, and not one of them is missing.

Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing; each has its twin; not one of them is missing.

Like a shepherd he tends his flock; he gathers up the lambs with his arm; he carries them close to his heart; ¹  he leads the ewes along.

Jacob removed these lambs, but he made the rest of the flock face ¹  the streaked and completely dark-colored animals in Laban’s flock. So he made separate flocks for himself and did not mix them with Laban’s flocks.

But Jacob ¹  said to him, “My lord knows that the children are young, ²  and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. ³  If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.