John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Genesis 30:1
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children ,.... In the space of three or four years after marriage, and when her sister Leah had had four sons: Rachel envied her sister ; the honour she had of bearing children, and the pleasure in nursing and bringing them up, when she lay under the reproach of barrenness: or, "she emulated her sisters" F26 תקנא "aemulata est", Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Schmidt. ; was desirous of having children even as she, which she... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Genesis 30:1-13
We have here the bad consequences of that strange marriage which Jacob made with the two sisters. Here is, I. An unhappy disagreement between him and Rachel (Gen. 30:1, 2), occasioned, not so much by her own barrenness as by her sister's fruitfulness. Rebekah, the only wife of Isaac, was long childless, and yet we find no uneasiness between her and Isaac; but here, because Leah bears children, Rachel cannot live peaceably with Jacob. 1. Rachel frets. She envied her sister, Gen. 30:1. Envy is... read more