Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
Parallel translations
- WEB God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her, and opened her womb.
- KJV And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
- BSB Then God remembered Rachel. He listened to her and opened her womb,
- NKJV Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
- NLT Then God remembered Rachel’s plight and answered her prayers by enabling her to have children.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God remembers Rachel, listens to her, and opens her womb. After long barrenness, the Lord graciously grants her a child.
Overview
To say God 'remembered' Rachel does not mean he had forgotten her, but that he now acts to fulfill his purpose for her, as he did for Sarah and will for Hannah. Her barrenness, ended only by divine intervention, underscores that children are God's gift and that he hears the cries of the afflicted. This pattern of God opening a barren womb anticipates the births of key figures in redemptive history, ultimately the miraculous birth of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Gen 29:31Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
- Ps 113:9He settles the barren woman in her home, as a joyful mother of children. Praise Yah!
- 1 Sam 1:19–20They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before Yahweh, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah. Then Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and Yahweh remembered her.
- Gen 8:1God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided.
- Ps 127:3Behold, children are a heritage of Yahweh. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
- Gen 25:21Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
- Gen 21:1–2Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken.
- Ps 105:42For he remembered his holy word, and Abraham, his servant.
- Gen 30:2Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
From the first promise that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent (3:15), through Abraham's blessing to all nations and Judah's coming ruler, Genesis sows every seed that flowers in Christ — the true offspring, the better Adam, the ram caught for Isaac.
How Genesis 30:22 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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