1 Samuel 2:5

2:5 Those who are well-fed hire themselves out to earn food,

but the hungry no longer lack.

Even ¹  the barren woman gives birth to seven, ² 

but the one with many children withers away. ³ 

Psalms 113:9

113:9 He makes the barren woman of the family ⁴ 

a happy mother of children. ⁵ 

Praise the Lord!

Hebrews 11:11-12

11:11 By faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and he was too old, ⁶  he received the ability to procreate, ⁷  because he regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy. 11:12 So in fact children ⁸  were fathered by one man – and this one as good as dead – like the number of stars in the sky and like the innumerable grains of sand ⁹  on the seashore. ¹⁰ 

¹ tc Against BHS but with the MT, the preposition (עַד, ’ad) should be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. For this sense of the preposition see Job 25:5.

² sn The number seven is used here in an ideal sense. Elsewhere in the OT having seven children is evidence of fertility as a result of God’s blessing on the family. See, for example, Jer 15:9, Ruth 4:15.

³ tn Or “languishes.”

⁴ tn Heb “of the house.”

⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

⁶ tn Grk “past the time of maturity.”

⁷ tn Grk “power to deposit seed.” Though it is not as likely, some construe this phrase to mean “power to conceive seed,” making the whole verse about Sarah: “by faith, even though Sarah herself was barren and too old, she received ability to conceive, because she regarded the one who had given the promise to be trustworthy.”

⁸ tn Grk “these”; in the translation the referent (children) has been specified for clarity.

⁹ tn Grk a collective “the sand.”

¹⁰ sn An allusion to Gen 22:17 (which itself goes back to Gen 15:5).