BARRENNESS
An affliction peculiarly lamented throughout the East, Genesis 16:1; Genesis 1:30; 1 Samuel 1:6, 1 Samuel 1:1; Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 1:49; Luke 1:25, especially by the Jewish women, who remembered the promised Messiah, Genesis 3:15, and hoped for the honor of his parentage. The strength of this feeling is evinced by the extraordinary and often unjustifiable measures it led them to adopt, Genesis 16:2; Genesis 1:19; Genesis 1:38; Deuteronomy 1:25-10. Professed Christians are charged with barrenness, if they are destitute of the fruits of the Spirit, and do not abound in good works, Luke 1:13-9; 2 Peter 1:8.