Genesis 30:2

2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I can't take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children."

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 But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."

2 Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I can't take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children."

3 She said, "Here is my slave Bilhah; sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. In this way I can become a mother through her."

4 So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her.

5 Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.