pregnancy

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

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.”

¹³For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother.

⁴And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 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.”

⁵In the same manner that you do not know the way of the spirit, nor the way that bones are joined together in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, who is the Maker of all.

⁴⁴For behold, as the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵And blessed are you who believed, for the things that were spoken to you by the Lord shall be accomplished.”

¹⁵Is not he who created me in the womb, also he who labored to make him? And did not one and the same form me in the womb?

¹⁵Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to take pity on the child of her womb? But even if she would forget, still I shall never forget you.

¹¹But thereafter he said: “Behold, you have conceived, and you will give birth to a son. And you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction.

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

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

²²If men will have quarreled, and one of them has struck a pregnant woman, and as a result she miscarries, but she herself survives, he shall be subject to as much damage as the husband of the woman shall petition from him, or as arbitrators shall judge. ²³But if her death will have followed, he will repay a life for a life, ²⁴an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, ²⁵a scrape for a scrape, a wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise.

¹A Psalm of David. The Lord directs me, and nothing will be lacking to me. ²He has settled me here, in a place of pasture. He has led me out to the water of refreshment. ³He has converted my soul. He has led me away on the paths of justice, for the sake of his name. ⁴For, even if I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they have given me consolation. ⁵You have prepared a table in my sight, opposite those who trouble me. You have anointed my head with oil, and my cup, which inebriates me, how brilliant it is! ⁶And your mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and so may I dwell in the house of the Lord for length of days.

²⁹For behold, the days will arrive in which they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not nursed.’

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

¹³And he will love you and multiply you. And he will bless the fruit of your womb, and the fruit of your land: your grain as well as your vintage, oil, and herds, and the flocks of your sheep, upon the land about which he swore to your fathers that he would give it to you.