Sarai was barren. She had no child.
Parallel Translations
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Sarai was barren. She had no child.
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But Sarai was barren; she had no child.
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And Sarai was barren; she had no child.
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Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Genesis 11:30 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 15:2-3 Abram said, “Lord Yahweh, what will you give me, since I go childless, and he who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” Abram said, “Behold, you have given no children to me: and, behold, one born in my house is my heir.”
- Genesis 16:1-2 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. Sarai said to Abram, “See now, Yahweh has restrained me from bearing. Please go in to my servant. It may be that I will obtain children by her.” Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
- Genesis 18:11-12 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”
- Genesis 21:1-2 Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and Yahweh did to Sarah as he had spoken. Sarah conceived, and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
- Genesis 25:21 Isaac entreated Yahweh for his wife, because she was barren. Yahweh was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
- Genesis 29:31 Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
- Genesis 30:1-2 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I will die.” Jacob’s anger burned against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in God’s place, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”
- Judges 13:2 There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and childless.
- 1 Samuel 1:2 He had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
- Psalms 113:9 He settles the barren woman in her home as a joyful mother of children. Praise Yah!
- Luke 1:7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were well advanced in years.
- Luke 1:36 Behold, Elizabeth your relative also has conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (5 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 30. But Sarai was barren. Not only does he…
30. But Sarai was barren. Not only does he say that Abram was without children, but he states the reasons namely, the sterility of his wife; in order to show that it was by nothing short of an extraordinary miracle that she afterwards bare Isaac, as we shall declare more fully in its proper place. Thus was God pleased to humble his servant; and we cannot doubt that Abram would suffer severe pain through this privation. He sees the wicked springing up everywhere, in great numbers, to cover the earth; he alone is deprived of children. And although hitherto he was ignorant of his own future vocation; yet God designed in his person, as in a mirror, to make it evident, whence and in what manner his Church should arise; for at that time it lay hid, as in a dry root under the earth.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she [had] no…
Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she [had] no child.
Ver. 30. But Sarai was barren.] Till she had prayed for a child thirty years, and then she had him with abundance of joy. At first she believed not the promise, but laughed at the unlikelihood, and was checked for it. But when she had better bethought herself, "through faith she received strength to conceive seed, because she judged him faithful who had promised". {Heb 11:11} She was (when past age) delivered of a child; who was not more the child of her flesh, than of her faith. Whether she were that Iscah spoken of in the verse next aforegoing, the doctors are divided. Some say that Iscah, in Chaldee, signifieth the same that Sarai in Hebrew. Others more probably make Sarai another woman, and the daughter not of Haran, but of Terah: how else could Abram say of her, that she was the daughter of his father, but not of his mother? {Gen 20:12} {a}
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{a} Ea quae clavum administrationis tenet .
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain See Gen 16:1-2; 18:11-12.
See Gen 16:1-2; 18:11-12.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain But Sarai was barren; she had no child. Perhaps…
But Sarai was barren; she had no child. Perhaps in contrast to Milcah, who by this time had begun to have a family (Murphy).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered…
11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.