Laban tried to buy him off. What shall I give thee? he asked — the question of a man who believes everything has a price (Genesis 30:31).
Jakob, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan's telling, refused the transaction entirely. Thou shalt not give me anything else. No severance. No lump sum. No gift meant to close the account and walk him out the door with a smile. Instead: do me this thing, and I will return and pasture thy flock, and keep them.
He wanted the arrangement on his own terms, not Laban's charity. A shepherd who has been cheated for fourteen years does not trust gifts. He trusts the structure he himself designs.
The Maggid teaches: when someone who has wronged you asks what they can give you, the answer is sometimes not a thing at all, but a new agreement — one whose terms you set. Jakob knew the difference between a payment and a partnership, and he would not accept the first as a substitute for the second.