infanticide

¹⁶Then Herod, seeing that he had been fooled by the Magi, was very angry. And so he sent to kill all the boys who were in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had learned by questioning the Magi. ¹⁷Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled, saying: ¹⁸“A voice has been heard in Ramah, great weeping and wailing: Rachel crying for her sons. And she was not willing to be consoled, because they were no more.”

¹⁹This one, encompassing our kindred, afflicted our fathers, so that they would expose their infants, lest they be kept alive.

¹⁶Their infants will be thrown down violently before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives will be violated.

¹⁵Thus says the Lord: “A voice has been heard on high: of lamentation, mourning, and weeping; of Rachel crying for her sons and refusing to be consoled over them, because they are not.”

¹⁵Then the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews, (one of whom one was called Shiphrah, another Puah) ¹⁶instructing them: “When you will act as a midwife to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery has arrived: if it is male, put it to death; if it is female, retain it.”

¹⁶Then Menahem struck Tirzah, and all who were in it, and its borders around Tirzah. For they were not willing to open to him. And he killed all of its pregnant women, and he tore them open.

³Now therefore, go and strike Amalek, and demolish all that is his. You shall not spare him, and you shall not covet anything out of the things that are his. Instead, kill from man even to woman, and little ones as well as infants, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

¹⁶instructing them: “When you will act as a midwife to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery has arrived: if it is male, put it to death; if it is female, retain it.”

²⁹Then it happened, in the middle of the night: the Lord struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the captive woman who was in prison, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

⁹Blessed is he who will take hold of your little ones and dash them against the rock.

⁸He struck the first-born of Egypt, from man even to cattle.

¹⁷Therefore, put to death all of them: whatever is of the male sex, even among the little ones, and cut the throats of those women who have known men by sexual relations.

¹¹He led Israel away from their midst, for his mercy is eternal:

¹³You shall not murder.

¹³Thus says the Lord: For three wicked deeds of the sons of Ammon, and for four, I will not convert him, in so far as he has cut up the pregnant women of Gilead, so as to expand his limits.

⁸O daughter of Babylon, have pity. Blessed is he who will repay you with your payment, which you have paid to us. ⁹Blessed is he who will take hold of your little ones and dash them against the rock.

⁶And he led his son through fire. And he used divinations, and observed omens, and appointed soothsayers, and multiplied diviners, so that he did evil before the Lord, and provoked him.

³Instead, he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. Moreover, he even consecrated his son, making him pass through fire, in accord with the idols of the nations that the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

¹⁶Then Herod, seeing that he had been fooled by the Magi, was very angry. And so he sent to kill all the boys who were in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years of age and under, according to the time that he had learned by questioning the Magi.

¹¹Ephraim has chased away their glory like a bird: from birth, and from the womb, and from conception. ¹²And even if they should nurture their sons, I will make them without children among men. Yes, and woe to them, when I have withdrawn from them. ¹³Ephraim, as I see it, was a Tyre, founded by beauty. And Ephraim will lead his sons to execution. ¹⁴Give them, O Lord. What will you give them? Give them a womb without children, and dry breasts. ¹⁵All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for I held them there, in their hatred. Because of the malice of their inventions, I will expel them from my house. I will no longer say that I love them; all their leaders have retreated. ¹⁶Ephraim has been struck; their root has been dried out: by no means will they yield fruit. And even if they should conceive, I will execute the most beloved of their womb.