Matthew Henry on Genesis 30:14-24
Here is, I. Leah fruitful again, after she had, for some time, left off bearing. Jacob, it should seem, associated more with Rachel than with Leah. The law of Moses supposes it a common case that, if a man had two wives, one would be beloved and the other hated, Deu 21:15. But at length Rachel's strong passions betrayed her into a bargain with Leah that Jacob should return to her apartment. Reuben, a little lad, five or six years old, playing in the field, found mandrakes, dudaim. It is uncertain what they were, the critics are not agreed about them; we are sure they were some rarities, either fruits or flowers that were very pleasant to the smell, Sol 7:13. Note, The God of nature has provi…
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afterwards, she bare a daughter--The inferior value set on a daughter is displayed in the bare announcement of the birth.
Adam Clarke on Genesis 30:22
And God hearkened to her - After the severe reproof which Rachel had received from her husband, Gen 30:2, it appears that she sought God by prayer, and that he heard her; so that her prayer and faith obtained what her impatience and unbelief had prevented.
John Gill on Genesis 30:22
And God remembered Rachel,.... In a way of mercy and kindness, whom he seemed to have forgotten, by not giving her children:
and God hearkened to her; to her prayer, which had been made time after time, that she might have children; but hitherto God had delayed to answer, but now gives one:
and opened her womb; gave her conception, and made her fruitful, and she became the mother of a child she so much desired.
John Calvin on Genesis 30:22-24
And God remembered Rachel. Since with God nothing is either before or after, but all things are present, he is subject to no forgetfulness, so that, in the lapse of time, he should need to be reminded of what is past. But the Scripture describes the presence and memory of God from the effect produced upon ourselves, because we conceive him to be such as he appears to be by his acts. Moreover, whether Rachel's child was born the last of all, cannot with certainty be gathered from the words of Moses. They who, in this place, affirm that the figure hysteron proteron, which puts the last first, is used, are moved by the consideration, that if Joseph had been born after the last of his brethren,…
