And Jacob being angry with her, answered: Am I as God, who hath deprived thee of the fruit of thy womb?

“XIII. " And she shall be called woman." This is equivalent to saying, On this account the outward sensation shall be called woman, because it is derived from man who sets it in motion. He say3 " she ;" why, then, is the expression " she" used? Why, because there is also another kind of outward sensation, not derived from the mind, but having been created at the same moment with it. For there are, as I have said before, two different kinds of outward sensation ; the one kind existing according to habit, and the other according to energy. Nov.-, the kind existing according to habit is not derived from the man, that is to say from the mind, but is created at the same time with him. For the mind, as I have already shown, when it was created was created with many faculties and habits ; namely, with the faculty and habit of reasoning, and of existing, and of promoting what is like itself, as also with that of receiving impressions from the outward senses. But the outward sensation, which exists according to energy, is derived from the mind. For it is extended from the outward sensation which exists in it according to habit, so as to become the same outward sense according to energy. So that this second kind of outward sense is derived from the mind, and exists according to motion. And he is but a foolish person who thinks that any thing is in true reality made out of the mind, or out of itself. Do you not see that even in the case of Rachel (that is to say of outward sensation) sitting upon the images, while she thought that her motions came from the mind, he who saw her reproved her. For she says, " Give me my children, and if you give them not to me I shall die." And he replied : " Because, 0 mistaken woman, the mind is not the cause of any thing, but he which existed before the mind ; namely God." On which account he adds : " Am I equal to God who has deprived you of the fruit of your womb ? " But that it is God who creates men, he will testify in the case' of Leah, when he says, " But the Lord, when he saw that Leah was hated, opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. "f But it is the especial property of man to open the womb. Now naturally virtue is hated by men. On which account God has honoured it, and gives the honour of bearing the first child to her who is hated. And in another passage he says : " But if a man has two wives, one of them being loved and one of them being hated, and if they bear him children, and if the first-born son be the child of her who is hated ; he will not be able to give the honours of the birthright to the child of the wife whom he loves, overlooking the first-born son the child of her who is hated. "J For the productions of virtue which is hated, are the first and the most perfect, but those of pleasure, which is loved, are the last.”

“Why, Jacob says, do you ignore the Lord of nature and fix the blame on me? He it is who has deprived you of the fruit of the womb. Why not make your request to him, who can open nature's workplace and quicken the womb to childbirth? So understand that God is the one who has deprived you of the fruit of the womb and granted your sister such fertility. So don't look to me for what I am powerless to provide and over which I have no lordship. I mean, if it lay in my power, I would certainly give you pride of place ahead of your sister by securing greater respect for you. But since, no matter to what degree I am kindly disposed to you, I can do nothing to solve your problem, address your request to him who inflicted the sterility and has the power to remedy it. See the good man's common sense in that, though provoked to anger by her words, he replied to her with great wisdom, instructing her precisely in everything and making the responsibility clear to her, lest by ignoring the Lord she might seek from another what God alone was able to provide.”

“AND JACOB’s ANGER WAS KINDLED. It is not in the power of the righteous that their prayer be heard and answered in any case, and because she spoke in the manner of yearning women who are loved, thus attempting to frighten him with her death, his anger was kindled. Therefore, he said to her that he is not in G-d’s stead that he should remember the barren ones by giving them children in any case, and he does not care about it since it is from her that children were withheld and not from him. He said this in order to admonish her and shame her. Now the righteous woman Rachel, seeing that she could not rely upon Jacob’s prayer, then went to pray on her own behalf to Him Who hears the cry of those in trouble. This is the sense of the verse, And G-d hearkened to her. Perhaps we can rectify Jacob’s retort in consonance with the opinion of our Rabbis [who related that Jacob said to Rachel, “It is from you that He has withheld children and not from me,”] for it is impossible to think that Jacob did not pray on behalf of his beloved wife who was barren, however his prayer was not accepted. Now Rachel came to him with a pretext saying that he should, in any case, give her children through his prayer for he is not of less stature than his father who did so. At this, his anger was kindled and he said to her that the matter is up to G-d and not to him, and that his father’s prayer was heard because he was a righteous man and was destined to have children, but here it is from her that He has withheld children. This is a correct interpretation.”

“And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel,.... Whom yet he dearly loved, hearing her talk in such an extravagant manner, as her words seemed to be, and were not: only expressive of great uneasiness and impatience, but implied what was not in the power of man to do: and he said, am I in God's stead: do you take me to be God, or one that has a dispensing power from him to do what otherwise no creature can do; and which also he never gives to any? for, as the Targum of Jerusalem on Gen 30:22 says, this is one of the four keys which God delivers not to an angel or a seraph; even the key of barrenness. Children are the gift of God, and his only, and therefore he is to be sought unto for them: hence Onkelos land Jonathan paraphrase it;"wherefore dost thou seek them of me? shouldest thou not seek them of the Lord?" who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? children, Psa 127:3; not Jacob, but the Lord.”

“Angry at the rash and apparently blasphemous demand of Rachel. (Menochius) — As God, pro Deo. Am I to work a miracle in opposition to God, who has made thee barren? To him thou oughtest to address thyself. The Hebrews justly observe, that God has reserved to himself the four keys of nature: 1. Of generation; 2. Of sustenance, Psalm cxliv. 16; 3. Of rain, Deuteronomy xxviii. 12; And, 4. Of the grave or resurrection, Ezechiel xxxvii. 12. (Tirinus)”