The condition of being barren (unable to have children) or childless.
A closed womb was seen as a personal tragedy. After the flood, God commanded people to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Genesis 9:1). Later, Jeremiah gave similar advice (Jeremiah 29:6). A barren wife in a polygamous marriage (where a man has multiple wives) could be ridiculed or extreme jealousy (Genesis 16:4; Jeremiah 30:1). The pressure to have children for her husband was so intense that a barren wife might offer her husband a surrogate mother (a woman who would have a baby for the couple; Genesis 16:1–2; 30:3). If a husband died without children, his brother was expected to have children with his wife on his behalf (Genesis 38:8).
Barrenness could be a curse or a divine punishment (Hosea 9:11, 14; Genesis 20:17–18). It could be removed after earnest prayers (Genesis 25:21; 1 Samuel 1:16, 20). It could also be removed by God’s prophet or messenger (2 Kings 4:16; Genesis 18:14).
In one story, a wife who had stopped having children traded mandrakes (a plant believed to help with fertility) for the chance to sleep with her husband and had three more children (Genesis 30:14–21). God promised that if Israel obeyed His laws, they would not experience infertility (inability to have children; Deuteronomy 7:14). Unusually, ancient texts also considered that barrenness could result from male infertility. Lastly, despite how bad barrenness was, Jesus told the women of Jerusalem that it would be better than the suffering they were about to face (Luke 23:29). He was teaching that physical problems are not as important as spiritual ones.