Afterward she gave birth to a daughter, and named her Dinah.
Genesis 30:21 (NASB)
Of Rachel and Leah’s children in Genesis 30, Dinah is the only girl. While this is notable, the rabbis also notice that Dinah is the only child for whom the phrase “and she conceived” is omitted.
One possible reason is that Dinah is Zebulun’s twin sister, and that the conception mentioned in verse 19 covers both siblings.
Also notable: Dinah’s name is not explained. It means “judgement.”
וַתֹּ֣אמֶר רָחֵ֗ל נַפְתּוּלֵ֨י אֱלֹהִ֧ים ׀ נִפְתַּ֛לְתִּי עִם־אֲחֹתִ֖י גַּם־יָכֹ֑לְתִּי וַתִּקְרָ֥א שְׁמ֖וֹ נַפְתָּלִֽי׃
And Rachel said, “A fateful contest I waged with my sister; yes, and I have prevailed.” So she named him Naphtali.
Genesis 30:8 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)
Genesis 30:8 introduces us to a Hebrew idiom that hasn’t been used before in the text.
The highlighted word here is “Elohim,” which has been consistently used to describe God. But God isn’t mentioned in the verse.
Here, “Elohim” is used as a verb intensifier.
Literally, the passage is “Naftulei **Elohim** niftalti im achoti.”
“With wrestlings-of God, I have wrestled with my sister.”
(Naphtali means “wrestling” or “struggling.”)
This use of “Elohim” like this happens elsewhere in scripture: Jonah 3:3. There, Nineveh is described as an “exceedingly great city.” (KJV)
It is literal a city “great to God.” It is a city that God *spares when it repents.* This seems significant.
Going back to Genesis 30:8, what can we understand from this use of “Elohim?”
Perhaps this is more than a great wrestling with her sister. Perhaps Rachel is wrestling with God here.
Then Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
Genesis 30:2 (NASB)
In the previous verse, Rachel cries out, “give me children, or I’ll die!”
This passage ties a past thread together. When Rebekah could not conceive, Isaac prayed for his wife and God answered. But in a way, Isaac was also praying for himself.
At this point in the story, Jacob has four sons, so the problem isn’t with him. God isn’t withholding children from *him.*
It is accurate, but it’s also a cruel thing for him say. Also, the text does not show that Isaac prayed for her.
We know Jacob favors Rachel, and he favors her sons when she has children later, but this callousness makes me wonder if Jacob is a bit like his father here: easily swayed.
Isaac favored Esau because he liked what Esau brought him.
Maybe Jacob favors Leah right now, and this is an unfair favoritism.
Now when Rachel saw that she had not borne Jacob any children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I am going to die.”
Genesis 30:1 (NASB)
The opening of Genesis 30 gives us insight into the way we are supposed to read and understand scripture.
The rabbis pose a question: “why is Rachel only jealous *now,* after Leah’s fourth son has been born? Why not earlier?”
The answer: the story is a narrative of the past that speaks into the present and future. All of it.
The readers know the story sets up the 12 tribes. Jacob has 4 women through whom the tribes will be born, so the math should be simple: 3×4. Each should have 3 children.
So when Leah’s story gives us FOUR sons, the reader should immediately see a problem: clearly God is at work in Leah, and Judah is the result. What is left for Rachel?
“Give me children, or else I am going to die!”
Rachel’s cry seems dramatic, but it’s a statement about blessing. Being fruitful and multiplying.
Her cry echoes Esau’s bitter cry about being passed over for blessing. Will she be cut off, like Esau was cut off?
Jacob was incensed at Rachel, and said, “Can I take the place of God, who has denied you fruit of the womb?”
Genesis 30:2 (The Contemporary Torah, JPS 2006)
I think this passage is meant to help us learn how to properly frame the unfortunate circumstance of barrenness, and to understand what prayer is supposed to do. Is Jacob speaking correctly here? Has God “denied” Rachel fruit of the womb?
When we pray to have children, are we praying that God overcomes some kind of problem in the world (our barrenness), and that God may choose to heal us or not? Or are we praying that God undoes what God is also in control over? Ie., “God, you have made me barren. Please make me fruitful instead.”
The way we view “barrenness” here directly impacts how we view a God who addresses it.
In the first view (barrenness is a condition of the world, and God may/may-not heal us), the personality of God is one who sees a problem that happened to you, and in God’s infinite wisdom may choose to rescue or not. And if not, our unheard prayers might feel like God either does not care or does not exist. Or perhaps we’re not praying hard enough.
In the second view, where God has closed the womb and caused the barrenness, the view of God is different. We desire a child, and God has said no, or not-yet. And in this setting, we can get mad at God because we don’t like the answer, and this is very different than being let down because God cannot hear us, or because we need to pray more faithfully.
This is different than prayers of healing for someone who is dying, or praying for respite from crushing poverty or war. Those are “bad things” from which we cry out to be rescued. Yes, God created the darkness and the light; God created Ra (evil) and Tov (good). But “rescue” is a different topic.
Praying for release from barrenness is… something else. It’s a reflection of our desire to live into God’s promise of “be fruitful and multiply.”
So when Jacob declares that it is God who closed Rachel’s womb, I think the text is giving us a theological axiom: we can’t be fruitful on our own. A branch must be connected to the vine to bear fruit, and it will not bear fruit any earlier than that.
But also, branches will bear fruit when connected to the vine. This is a promise: we will be fruitful and multiply.
Obviously, this is spiritual talk. I’m not saying everyone who wants a baby will have a baby. We are being told a physical story to understand a spiritual principle.
Notably, this is the THIRD time we’ve been told this same story. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each have wives who start out barren. Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel each are longing for the promise.
Perhaps closeness to God is tied to that same longing. Perhaps the “no; not-yet” is a parable of our lived experience.