Jacob Names His Wages and Laban Keeps Changing the Terms

"I have observed by divination" (Genesis 30:27): I have tested and examined, "and the LORD has blessed me for your sake." "And he said, Name your wages" (Genesis 30:28): set a fixed sum, state it plainly. "For the little that you had before me" (Genesis 30:30): the word "little" is said here, and "little" is said elsewhere, "and he sojourned there, few in number" (Deuteronomy 26:5). Just as there it means seventy souls, so here it means seventy. "When shall I provide for my own house also?" (Genesis 30:30): Reuben needs me, Simeon needs me [each child requires support]. "And my righteousness will testify for me on the morrow" (Genesis 30:33). Rabbi Judah bar Simon says: "Do not boast about the morrow." You said, "my righteousness will testify for me on the morrow"; on the morrow your daughter goes out and is degraded, as it is said, "And Dinah the daughter of Leah went out" (Genesis 34:1). "And Laban said, Behold, let it be according to your word" (Genesis 30:34): every agreement that Laban made with Jacob our father he would reverse ten times retroactively, as it is said, "Behold, let it be" [read as a doubled assent he kept undoing]. And our rabbis say, a hundred times, as it is said, "and he changed my wages ten counts" (Genesis 30:41), for "counts" is no fewer than ten [times ten]. "And Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flock" (Genesis 30:36): it is written "the remaining one"; some of them were diseased, some barren, some [text uncertain].