giving birth

²¹A woman, when she is giving birth, has sorrow, because her hour has arrived. But when she has given birth to the child, then she no longer remembers the difficulties, because of the joy: for a man has been born into the world.

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.”

⁷Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her time arrived for delivery, she gave birth to a male child. ⁸Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who has seen anything like this? Will the earth give birth in one day? Or will a nation be born all at once? For Zion has been in labor, and she has given birth to her sons. ⁹Will I, who causes others to give birth, not also give birth myself, says the Lord? Will I, who bestows generation upon others, be barren myself, says the Lord your God? ¹⁰Rejoice with Jerusalem, and exult in her, all you who love her! Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her! ¹¹So may you nurse and be filled, from the breasts of her consolations. So may you receive milk and overflow with delights, from every portion of her glory. ¹²For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will turn a river of peace toward her, with an inundating torrent: the glory of the Gentiles, from which you will nurse. You will be carried at the breasts, and they will caress you upon the knees.

³Behold, the inheritance of the Lord is sons, the reward is the fruit of the womb.

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.”

¹⁵Yet she will be saved by bearing children, if she has continued in faith and love, and in sanctification accompanied by self-restraint.

¹⁶To the woman, he also said: “I will multiply your labors and your conceptions. In pain shall you give birth to sons, and you shall be under your husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over you.”

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.

¹⁹They responded: “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. For they themselves have the wisdom of a midwife, and so they give birth before we can come to them.”

¹⁴For this reason, the Lord himself will grant to you a sign. Behold, a virgin will conceive, and she will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.

¹³Everything is possible in him who has strengthened me.

¹⁴And there will be joy and exultation for you, and many will rejoice in his nativity.

⁶Then it happened that, while they were there, the days were completed, so that she would give birth.

²Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them: A woman, if she has received the seed to bear a male, shall be unclean for seven days, just as in the days of separation due to menstruation. ³And on the eighth day, the little infant shall be circumcised. ⁴Yet truly, she herself shall remain for thirty-three days in the blood of her purification. She shall not touch anything holy, nor shall she enter into the Sanctuary, until the days of her purification are completed. ⁵But if she will bear a female, she shall be unclean for two weeks, according to the custom of her monthly flow, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days. ⁶And when the days of her purification have been completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a one-year-old lamb as a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for sin, and she shall deliver them to the priest. ⁷He shall offer them in the sight of the Lord, and he shall pray for her. And so she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for one who bears a male or a female.

¹⁷Like a woman who has conceived and is approaching the time for delivery, who, in anguish, cries out in her pains, so have we become before your face, O Lord.

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.