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BARRENNESS
Condition of being barren or childless. A closed womb was a personal tragedy in OT times. God’s command to people after the Flood was to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Gn 9:1); later, Jeremiah offered the same advice (Jer 29:6). A barren wife in a polygamous marriage was subject to ridicule (Gn 16:4) or extreme jealousy (30:1). The social pressure to bear children for her husband was so great that the barren wife sometimes offered her husband a surrogate mother (16:1-2; 30:3). If a husband died without children, it was the responsibility of his brother to have children by his wife for him (38:8).
Barrenness could be a curse (Hos 9:11, 14) or a divine punishment (Gn 20:17-18). It could be removed after earnest prayers (Gn 25:21; 1 Sm 1:16, 20) or by God’s prophet (2 Kgs 4:16) or messenger (Gn 18:14). On one occasion, a wife who had stopped having children was able to trade some mandrakes in exchange for sleeping privileges with her husband and had three more children (Gn 30:14-21). God promised Israel no infertility if they obeyed his laws (Dt 7:14). Unique among ancient writings is the concept here that barrenness could be a result of male infertility. Finally, as bad as barrenness was, Jesus told the women of Jerusalem that barrenness and dry breasts would be better than what they were going to go through (Lk 23:29). He was teaching that physical problems are never ultimate; spiritual ones are.