Barrenness

Barren land

Barrenness describes waste and unproductive land

Jeremiah 2:6 ESV

They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells?’

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Barren land as a sign of God’s disfavour

Thorns and thistles are often used to designate barren or unproductive land.

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Fertility, as opposed to barrenness, a sign of God’s blessing

Consequently, the inability to conceive was regarded as a sign of God’s displeasure.

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God’s end-time blessings:

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The barren woman

Her desire for children

Genesis 30:1–2 ESV

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?”

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Examples of barren women

Sarah; Rachel; Manoah’s wife; Hannah; Elizabeth; The ability to bear a child in these circumstances, especially in old age, was seen as a sign of God’s blessing and his miraculous power.

Barrenness was sometimes seen as a sign of God’s disfavour

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Childlessness was not always the result of barrenness

Deuteronomy 28:41 ESV

You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.

Barrenness might be an advantage in some circumstances

Referring to the disasters about to come upon Jerusalem.

Metaphorically, barrenness may describe an unproductive or desperate condition

Hebrews 6:7–8 ESV

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

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