Genesis Chapter 30 verse 22 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 22-24. - And God remembered Rachel (cf. Genesis 8:1; 1 Samuel 1:19), and God hearkened to her, - as to Leah (ver. 17) - and opened her womb - as he had previously done to Leah (Genesis 29:31). Rachel's barrenness had not continued so long as either Sarah's or Rebekah's. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach - i.e. of sterility. The mandrakes of Leah having proved inefficacious, Rachel at length realizes that children are God s gift, and this thought sufficiently explains the use of the term Elohim. And she called his name Joseph; - יוסֵפ, either, "he takes away," with allusion to the removal of her reproach, or, "he shall add," with reference to her hope of another son. Perhaps the first thought is not obscurely hinted at, though the second appears' from the ensuing clause to have occupied the greater prominence in Rachel's mind - and said, The Lord - Jehovah; a trace of the Jehovistic pen (Tuch, Bleek, et alii); rather an outcome of the higher spiritual life of Rachel, who had now got emancipated from all such merely human devices as resorting to mandrakes, and was able to recognize her complete dependence for offspring on the sovereign grace of the covenant God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob (Hengstenberg, Keil) - shall add to me another son. CHAPTER 30:25-43

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(22-24) God remembered Rachel.--Rachel's long barrenness had probably humbled and disciplined her; and, cured of her former petulance, she trusts no longer to "love-apples," but looks to God for the great blessing of children. He hearkens to her prayer, and remembers her. (Comp. 1Samuel 1:19.) In calling his name Joseph, there is again a play upon two words, for it may be formed from the verb used in Genesis 30:23, and would then mean he takes away; or it may signify he adds, which is the meaning made prominent by Rachel. And God did add to her another son, but the boon cost her her life. As Joseph was born six or seven years before Jacob left Padan-aram, Rachel had been barren for twenty-six years. We must add that in her joy at Joseph's birth there is no trace of the ungenerous triumph over Leah so marked in her rejoicing at the birth of the sons of Bilhah; and in her trust that "Jehovah would add to her another son," she evidently had in mind the covenant promises, which a son of her own womb might now inherit. As a matter of fact, the long struggle for supremacy lay between the houses of Joseph and Judah; and Judah finally prevailed.