CRITICAL NOTES.—
Genesis 30:1. Give me children, or else I die.] Heb. “If none, I am a dead woman.” As to the raising up of seed, I shall be as good as dead. An old Jewish proverb says, “The childless are but as the lifeless.
Genesis 30:6. Dan.] Judging. The word is to be understood in a good sense as implying the vindication or deliverance of those who are unrighteously condemned or afflicted. (1 Samuel 24:15).
Genesis 30:8. Naphtali.] Heb. “Wrestlings of God,” i.e., great, urgent vehement.
Genesis 30:11. Gad.] Heb. “A troop cometh.” It is doubtful, however, whether the word really means troop. Most of the earlier versions give the sense of “luck, fortune, or prosperity.” The Chal. has “fortune cometh.” Alford remarks: “The A. V. has followed the Samaritan Pentateuch, which here reads a different word from the Hebrew. The familiar rendering of the latter seems the only expressive way of giving the sense. Where this is the case I have not shrank from using the words. We need not dilute the meaning of the text because the words happen to be in trivial use among us.
Genesis 30:13. Asher.] Heb. “Happy or blessed.” All would call her blessed, seeing she was so rich in sons. There are marked allusions to this. (Proverbs 31:28; Song of Solomon 6:9; Luke 1:48).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 30:1-13
RACHEL’S IMPATIENCE
Rachel found that, with all her beauty, she was childless. In Oriental countries, where the maternal relation is counted a great glory, a childless marriage is regarded as a shame and calamity. Here we see the character and effects of Rachel’s impatience of her barrenness.
I. It was ungodly.
1. She was the victim of unholy passions. She was full of envy and jealousy of her sister. Not content to enjoy the many blessings still remaining, she increases her trouble by inordinate desire of that which Providence had denied.
2. She took a despairing view of life. Rachel reproaches her husband and says to him, “Give me children, or else I die.” As if everything was gone from life when she was denied this one blessing. This was to take a despairing view of things, to allow one privation or calamity to swallow up all her joy. Such conduct is ungodly, for it is not the habit of the truly religious mind to dwell upon a few evils until they darken the whole of life. True faith in God would produce resignation.
3. She failed rightly to recognise the true Author of all good things. Her husband rightly replied, “Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” How could he give that which God had been pleased to withhold? Rachel did not consider the will of God in this matter, and her husband was filled with righteous indignation at her impiety.
II. It led to the adoption of wrong expedients. She gave her maid to her husband, after the example of Sarah (Ch. Genesis 16:2). In this way she hoped to have children, which she could call her own, in some sense—to become a mother by proxy. This was a blamable expediency, for it showed the impatient haste of unbelief and a want of confidence in Providence.
III. It had an influence for evil.
1. Upon her own character. When her maid had born children, she begins to boast over her sister. (Genesis 30:6; Genesis 30:8.) This was but a delusion, for there was no real ground for such vain glory. It was but a fancied happiness that she enjoyed. She was the victim of unrealities.
2. Upon her sister. Leah ceases to bear children, and therefore adopts the same expedient as Rachel (Genesis 30:9). The proud and challenging assertions of Rachel roused her to emulation. Leah, who had been pious and humble before, now becomes proud and vindictive. Thus radical defects of character tend to propagate their own likeness in others.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 30:1. Her envy was, no doubt, sharpened in this case by the fact that Leah was her sister, and by the knowledge that she was herself the favourite and elected wife. She must have feared that she should lose her ascendancy over Jacob by the want of children,—(Bush.)
Beauty and barrenness, deformity and fruitfulness: such are the compensations of Providence.
Discontent takes away the glory of life, and prevents us from enjoying the blessings we have.
How different is Rachel’s conduct from Rebekah’s in like circumstances (Ch. Genesis 25:22), and from Hannah’s (1 Samuel 1:11).
Genesis 30:2. Jacob was concerned for the honour of God, and not for any injury or injustice done to himself.
To murmur at the power and providence of the Most High shows a rebellious will.
He that will be angry, and not sin, must not be angry but for sin. Reprove thy wife thou mayest; chide her thou mayest not, unless the offence be against God, as here, and Job 2:10.—(Trapp.)
Genesis 30:3-5. It is a weak greediness in us to bring about God’s blessings by unlawful means. What a proof and a praise had it been of her faith, if she had staid God’s leisure, and would rather have endured her barrenness, than her husband’s polygamy.—(Bp. Hall.)
Genesis 30:6-8. God hath judged me. In this passage Jacob and Rachel use the common noun, God, the Everlasting, and therefore Almighty, who rules in the physical relations of things, a name suitable to the occasion. He had judged her, dealt with her according to His sovereign justice in withholding the fruit of the womb, when she was self-complacent and forgetful of her dependence on a higher power; and also of hearing her voice when she approached him in humble supplication.—(Murphy.)
She regarded the withholding of children as evidence of her lacking God’s favour; and she had been led to wrestlings of prayer to God for the blessing, as between herself and her sister, and she had prevailed. She now regarded the conflict as decided to her advantage.—(Jacobus.)
Genesis 30:9-13. Leah is seemingly conscious that she is here pursuing a device of her own heart; and hence there is no explicit reference to the Divine name or influence in the naming of the two sons of her maid.—(Murphy.)