What Does Genesis 30:1 Mean in the King James?
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew verb translated “bare” shares its root with words for “child” and “generations,” so Rachel’s anguish reaches beyond comparison to the fear that no future will come through her.
THE MEANING
The verse names how an unmet longing can become bound to the will to live: what is absent feels like life itself, and a sister’s having it sharpens the lack into envy. Rachel’s demand to Jacob speaks from that entanglement without softening it.
THE ROOT
יָלְדָה
yaldah
GROWS FROM
ילד
y-l-d
To bear, give birth, or beget.
The verse’s “bare” is yaldah, built on ילד, the same root behind yeled (“child”) and toledot (“generations”). Hebrew holds childbirth and the generations it carries in one word family, so Rachel’s fear reaches beyond one unmet wish toward a future she fears will not come through her.
ALSO GROWS
yalad: To bear or give birth.
יָלַד
This is the verb Rachel is said not to do; the root keeps the act of birth at the center of her cry.
yeled: Child or boy.
יֶלֶד
The child and the act of bearing belong to the same root family.
toledot: Generations or descendants.
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The root extends from a birth to the line of generations Rachel fears she will not have.
וַתְּקַנֵּא
watteqannēʾ
GROWS FROM
קנא
q-n-ʾ
To be jealous or zealous.
The verb translated “envied” belongs to the root used for zeal as well as jealousy. Here that intensity is directed toward her sister’s having what Rachel lacks, turning longing into rivalry.
ALSO GROWS
qinʾāh: Jealousy or zeal.
קִנְאָה
The same root names both jealousy and zeal, showing the intensity carried in Rachel’s envy.
qannāʾ: Jealous or zealous.
קַנָּא
This form shares the root’s concentrated intensity; here it is aimed at a sister’s possession.
THE PATTERN
When a desired good is measured against a sibling’s possession, longing becomes rivalry and the lack feels absolute.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.THE THREAD
And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:Genesis 30:1 says Rachel has not borne; here the same root, ילד (yalad, to bear or give birth), appears when she bears a son. The shared root lets the two lines sit together: what feels here like an impossible absence becomes a birth, without erasing the force of her cry.
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