What does Genesis 31:8 mean?
Jacob is making the case to his wives for why they should leave, and return to Jacob's family lands. He is describing how their father has cheated him, in spite of his own faithfulness. All of this is preparation for Jacob to ask for their support in leaving Paddan-aram and traveling to live permanently in his homeland of Canaan (Genesis 28:1–5; 31:3).Jacob has just stated that Laban attempted to change his wages ten times. Here, he explains. Their original agreement was that Jacob would be entitled to all of the striped, speckled, and spotted goats, in addition to all of the black sheep. Now we learn that Laban attempted multiple times to change that agreement. Instead of all of the non-black goats, only the spotted ones would belong to Jacob. Then only the striped ones.
The Lord, however, intervened repeatedly to protect Jacob's interests, supernaturally causing only spotted or only striped goats to be born to keep up with Laban's changing rules. Details about this arrangement will arise in verse 11, showing that Jacob's acceptance of the deal (Genesis 30:25–34) and the end results (Genesis 30:37–43) had already been guaranteed by God. So, no matter what Laban did to try and cheat Jacob, Jacob just kept prospering at his expense.