And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
Rachel envied her sister. The maternal relation confers a high degree of honour in the East, and the want of that status is felt as a stigma, and deplored as a grievous calamity.
Else I die - either be reckoned as good as dead, or pine away, from vexation. Besides the general desire for a family in the East, the intense anxiety of Hebrew women for children arose also from the hope of giving birth to the promised seed. Rachel's conduct was sinful, and contrasts unfavourably with that of Rebekah (cf. Genesis 25:22) and of Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11). But some allowance must be made for her natural feelings, produced by the tone of sentiment, and by the social usages prevalent around her. 'At every marriage a party of men and women convey a trousseau by torchlight to her new home; and among the mast conspicuous objects is a wooden cradle painted blue, red, or yellow. This piece of furniture is regarded in the East as the most important item of a trousseau; and she is an unhappy wife who does not soon see rocking in the gaudy cradle an infant son, whose name she may take (cf. John 2:1, last clause), and through whom she may be honoured among women' (Miss Rogers' 'Domestic Life in Palestine').