Genesis 30:2

2 To whom Jacob was wroth, and answered, Whether I am for God, which have deprived thee from the fruit of thy womb? (To whom Jacob was angry, and answered, Can I take the place of God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy 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 Forsooth Rachel saw, that she was unfruitful, and she had envy to her sister, and said to her husband, Give thou free children to me, (or) else I shall die. (And Rachel saw, that she was unfruitful, and she envied her sister, and said to her husband, Give thou some children to me, or else I shall die.)

2 To whom Jacob was wroth, and answered, Whether I am for God, which have deprived thee from the fruit of thy womb? (To whom Jacob was angry, and answered, Can I take the place of God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb?)

3 And she said, I have an handmaid Bilhah; enter thou [in] to her that she child on my knees, and that I have sons of her. (And she said, I have a slave-girl Bilhah; sleep thou with her, so that she can bear some children, and lay them on my knees, and so I shall have sons by her.)

4 And she gave to him Bilhah into matrimony; and when her husband had entered [in] to her,

5 she conceived, and childed a son.