Genesis 30:2

2 Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"

Genesis 30:2 Meaning and Commentary

Genesis 30:2

And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel
Whom yet he dearly loved, hearing her talk in such an extravagant manner, as her words seemed to be, and were not: only expressive of great uneasiness and impatience, but implied what was not in the power of man to do: and he said, [am] I in God's stead:
do you take me to be God, or one that has a dispensing power from him to do what otherwise no creature can do; and which also he never gives to any? for, as the Targum of Jerusalem on ( Genesis 30:22 ) says, this is one of the four keys which God delivers not to an angel or a seraph; even the key of barrenness. Children are the gift of God, and his only, and therefore he is to be sought unto for them: hence Onkelos land Jonathan paraphrase it;

``wherefore dost thou seek them of me? shouldest thou not seek them of the Lord?''
who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
children, ( Psalms 127:3 ) ; not Jacob, but the Lord.

Genesis 30:2 In-Context

1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!"
2 Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?"
3 Then she said, "Here is my maid Bilhah; go in to her, that she may bear upon my knees and that I too may have children through her."
4 So she gave him her maid Bilhah as a wife; and Jacob went in to her.
5 And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.