conception

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. And before you went forth from the womb, I sanctified you. And I made you a prophet to the nations.”

¹³For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother. ¹⁴I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well. ¹⁵My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth. ¹⁶Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.

²²The Lord, likewise remembering Rachel, heeded her and opened her womb.

²¹And Isaac beseeched the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. And he heard him, and he gave conception to Rebekah.

³⁷For no word will be impossible with God.”

²⁶There will not be fruitless or barren ones in your land. I will fill up the number of your days.

³Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward is the fruit of the womb. ⁴Like arrows in the hand of the powerful, so are the sons of those who have been cast out. ⁵Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from these things. He will not be confounded when he speaks to his enemies at the gate.

²⁰And it happened that, in the course of days, Hannah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Samuel, because she had requested him from the Lord.

⁹He causes a barren woman to live in a house, as the joyful mother of sons.

¹⁴Blessed shall you be among all peoples. No one will be barren among you of either gender, as much among men as among your herds.

²⁸And God blessed them, and he said, “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and the flying creatures of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

³¹Behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name: JESUS. ³²He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. And he will reign in the house of Jacob for eternity. ³³And his kingdom shall have no end.” ³⁴Then Mary said to the Angel, “How shall this be done, since I do not know man?” ³⁵And in response, the Angel said to her: “The Holy Spirit will pass over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And because of this also, the Holy One who will be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

³⁶And behold, your cousin Elizabeth has herself also conceived a son, in her old age. And this is the sixth month for her who is called barren.

¹Then the Lord visited Sarah, just as he had promised; and he fulfilled what he had spoken.

³And an Angel of the Lord appeared to her, and he said: “You are barren and without children. But you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴Therefore, take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. Neither shall you eat anything unclean. ⁵For you shall conceive and bear a son, whose head no razor shall touch. For he shall be a Nazirite of God, from his infancy and from his mother’s womb. And he shall begin to free Israel from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁶And when she had gone to her husband, she said to him: “A man of God came to me, having the countenance of an Angel, exceedingly terrible. And when I had inquired of him, who he was, and where he was from, and what name he was called, he was not willing to tell me. ⁷But he responded: ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Take care that you do not drink wine or strong drink. And you shall not consume anything unclean. For the boy shall be a Nazirite of God from his infancy, from his mother’s womb, even until the day of his death.’ ” ⁸And so Manoah prayed to the Lord, and he said, “I beg you Lord, that the man of God, whom you sent, may come again, and may teach us what we ought to do about the boy who is to be born.”

¹⁹And they rose up in the morning, and they worshipped before the Lord. And they returned and arrived at their own house at Ramah. Then Elkanah knew his wife Hannah. And the Lord remembered her.

²⁵“For the Lord did this for me, at the time when he decided to take away my reproach among men.”