Six Barren Women and Their Sons: A Recurring Pattern of Promise, Birth and Danger
Sarah and her son Isaac | Rebecca and her son Jacob | Rachel and her son Joseph | The Wife of Manoah and her son Samson | Hannah and her son Samuel | The Shunammite Woman and her unnamed son |
Barrenness | Barrenness | Barrenness | Barrenness | Barrenness | Barrenness |
“Now Sarah was barren, she had no child” (Genesis 11:30). | “Isaac was forty years old when he took to wife Rebecca, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, sister of Laban the Aramean. Isaac pleaded with the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren” (Genesis 25:20–21). |