The children born from these formerly barren women are significant. Abraham begets Isaac, Isaac begets Jacob, and Jacob will have sons as well. The first three barren women in the Old Testament (Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel) are all wives of patriarchs—three generations in a row! In other words, the generations of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all face the obstacle of barrenness, an obstacle the Lord overcomes by his promise-keeping power. It is the Lord’s power that sustains and advances his covenant promises.

Whenever the biblical authors describe a woman as barren, you can rest assured she won’t be barren for long. The reason for this confidence is the pattern of God’s reversal of the state of barrenness.

The Old Testament authors describe five women as barren. Let’s zoom in and see who they are.

Five Barren Women

First is Sarah. She’s Abraham’s wife. Genesis 11:30 tells us, “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.”

Second is Rebekah. She’s Isaac’s wife. In Genesis 25:21 we read, “And Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she was barren.”

Third is Rachel. She’s Jacob’s wife. According to Genesis 29:31, “Rachel was barren.”

Fourth is Manoah’s wife. She’s unnamed. The writer says in Judges 13:2, “And his wife was barren and had no children.”

Fifth is Hannah. She’s Elkanah’s wife. The writer says in 1 Samuel 1:2 that “Hannah had no children,” and the reason is in 1 Samuel 1:5: “the LORD had closed her womb.”

Sometimes interpreters have suggested that Ruth was barren. Ruth 4:13 says, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.” I don’t think the language is clear enough about barrenness to include Ruth in the list, so I’m contending that five—not six—barren women are identified in the Old Testament.

Barrenness Overcome

There were certainly barren women before and after the ones named above. So why do the biblical authors draw attention to the barrenness of these five women?

In every case where a barren state is identified, the Lord overcomes the woman’s barrenness.

The Lord had promised that “Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:14). And the Lord “visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him” (Gen. 21:1–2).

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