Genesis 11:30

Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she [had] no child.

Ver. 30. But Sarai was barren.] Till she had prayed for a child thirty years, and then she had him with abundance of joy. At first she believed not the promise, but laughed at the unlikelihood, and was checked for it. But when she had better bethought herself, "through faith she received strength to conceive seed, because she judged him faithful who had promised". {Heb 11:11} She was (when past age) delivered of a child; who was not more the child of her flesh, than of her faith. Whether she were that Iscah spoken of in the verse next aforegoing, the doctors are divided. Some say that Iscah, in Chaldee, signifieth the same that Sarai in Hebrew. Others more probably make Sarai another woman, and the daughter not of Haran, but of Terah: how else could Abram say of her, that she was the daughter of his father, but not of his mother? {Gen 20:12} {a}

{a} Ea quae clavum administrationis tenet .

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11:30 Sarai, Rebekah (25:21), and Rachel (29:31) all suffered infertility. Sarai’s situation in particular highlights the paradox between the apparent reality and God’s promise to give many descendants (12:2). The Israelite nation’s origin from barren women fixes its identity in the sovereignty of God, who miraculously gives children to barren women (see also 1 Sam 1:2; 2:5; Ps 113:9; Isa 54:1).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

30. But Sarai was barren. Not only does he say that Abram was without children, but he states the reasons namely, the sterility of his wife; in order to show that it was by nothing short of an extraordinary miracle that she afterwards bare Isaac, as we shall declare more fully in its proper place. Thus was God pleased to humble his servant; and we cannot doubt that Abram would suffer severe pain through this privation. He sees the wicked springing up everywhere, in great numbers, to cover the earth; he alone is deprived of children. And although hitherto he was ignorant of his own future vocation; yet God designed in his person, as in a mirror, to make it evident, whence and in what manner his Church should arise; for at that time it lay hid, as in a dry root under the earth.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

See Gen 16:1-2; 18:11-12.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But Sarai was barren; she had no child. Perhaps in contrast to Milcah, who by this time had begun to have a family (Murphy).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ותהי, the Torah makes clear that Sarai was barren, and that even if at a much later stage in her life she did give birth to a son, Yitzchok, this was not a natural development but was a miracle which could not be explained scientifically. This is the reason why the Torah did not simply content herself with the words ותהי שרי עקרה, “Sarai remained barren.” When Sarah did eventually bear a child, not only was the fact that she gave birth a miracle, but her age at the time, long after she had passed the child-bearing age, was an additional miracle. Although Sarai’s sister did not bear a child for many years, she is not reported as having been genetically barren. She apparently suffered some disease which was not connected to her basic ability of bearing children.

אין לה ולד, as long as she lived in the land of Ur Casdim she had no child, but in the land of Israel, eventually she did give birth. This is part of the reason why G’d, when He told Avram to emigrate, said: לך לך, “go for your own sake.” G’d had added that once there He would make Avram develop into a great nation [although this was not a promise that his children would be born by Sarah. Ed.]

Radak on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash” (CC BY 4.0); “Rabbi Mike Feuer, Jerusalem Anthology” (CC BY 4.0); and “R. David Kimhi on the first book of Psalms, Translated by R.G. Finch, London, 1919” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.