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Barrenness

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature

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Concordances
Nave Topical Bible
• Barrenness
Thompson Chain Reference
• Barrenness
Dictionaries
American Tract Society
• Barrenness
Easton's Bible Dictionary
• Barren
Holman Bible Dictionary
• Barren, Barrenness
Hastings' BibleDictionary
• Barrenness
King James Dictionary
• Barrenness
• Barren
Vines' Expository Dictionary
• Barren
Wilson's Bible Types
• Barren
Webster Dictionary
• Barrenness
• Barren
Watson's Theological Dictionary
• Barrenness
Encyclopedias
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Barren Island
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
• Barren; Barrenness
Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia
• Barrenness
McClintock and Strong's Bible Encyclopedia
• Barren
The Jewish Encyclopedia
• Barren, Barrenness
Lexicons
• ܥܶܩܳܪܳܐ
• ܨܰܕ݂ܝܳܐ
• ἀργός
• στεῖρα
• גַּלְמודּ
• מְלֵחָה
• עֹצֶר
•   (only first 3 shown)

Barrenness is, in the East, the hardest lot that can befall a woman, and was considered among the Israelites as the heaviest punishment with which the Lord could visit a female (Genesis 16:2; Genesis 30:1-23; 1 Samuel 1:6; 1 Samuel 1:19; Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 49:21; Luke 1:25). This general notion of the disgrace of barrenness in a woman may early have given rise, in the patriarchal age, to the custom among barren wives of introducing to their husbands their maid-servants, and of regarding the children born in that concubinage as their own, by which they thought to cover their own disgrace of barrenness (Genesis 16:2; Genesis 30:3).