46 Bible Verses about Motherhood

And woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

Woe to those women who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For great trouble and anguish will be on the land, and wrath and retribution on this people [Israel].

And woe to those women who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!

“As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem.”

They cry to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the streets of the city,
As their life [slips away and] is poured out
In their mothers’ arms.

But we behaved gently when we were among you, like a devoted mother tenderly caring for her own children.

He will protect His flock like a shepherd,
He will gather the lambs in His arm,
He will carry them in His bosom;
He will gently and carefully lead those nursing their young.

to older women as mothers, to younger women as sisters, in all purity [being careful to maintain appropriate relationships].

For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.

But women will be preserved (saved) through [the pain and dangers of] the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control and discretion.

[The Lord answered] “Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

Let your father and your mother be glad,
And let her who gave birth to you rejoice [in your wise and godly choices].

“Kings will be your attendants,
And their princesses your nurses.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth
And lick the dust of your feet;
And you shall know [with an understanding based on personal experience] that I am the Lord;
For they shall not be put to shame who wait and hope expectantly for Me.

But you will be betrayed and handed over even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death,

The proverbs of Solomon:

A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish [stubborn] son [who refuses to learn] is a grief to his mother.

They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

There is a generation (class of people) that curses its father
And does not bless its mother.

The rod and reproof (godly instruction) give wisdom,
But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

Greet Rufus, an eminent and choice man in the Lord, also his mother [who has been] a mother to me as well.

“Brother will betray brother to death, and the father his child; and children will rise up and rebel against their parents and cause them to be put death.

A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish man despises his mother.

My son, hear the instruction of your father,
And do not reject the teaching of your mother.

“Others snatch the fatherless [infants] from the breast [to sell or make them slaves],
And against the poor they take a pledge [of clothing].

Brother will betray brother to [be put to] death, and a father [will hand over] his child; and children will rise up and take a stand against parents and have them put to death.

Listen to your father, who sired you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old.

For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have never nursed.’

That you may nurse and be satisfied with her comforting breasts,
That you may drink deeply and be delighted with her bountiful bosom.”

Just as you do not know the way and path of the wind or how the bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

Then [Salome] the mother of Zebedee’s children [James and John] came up to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down [in respect], asked a favor of Him.

Save me, please, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.

The eye that mocks a father
And scorns a mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young vultures will devour it.

For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who give birth to them, and the fathers who father them in this land:

But He answered, “My mother and My brothers are these who listen to the word of God and do it!”

Children, obey your parents [as God’s representatives] in all things, for this [attitude of respect and obedience] is well-pleasing to the Lord [and will bring you God’s promised blessings].

like newborn babies [you should] long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may be nurtured and grow in respect to salvation [its ultimate fulfillment],

He makes the barren woman live in the house
As a joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

The hands of compassionate women
Boiled their own children;
They became food for them
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Judah].

Let a man meet a [ferocious] bear robbed of her cubs
Rather than the [angry, narcissistic] fool in his folly.

Yet You are He who pulled me out of the womb;
You made me trust when on my mother’s breasts.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord [that is, accept their guidance and discipline as His representatives], for this is right [for obedience teaches wisdom and self-discipline].

I am one of the peaceable and faithful in Israel. You are seeking to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up (devour) the inheritance of the Lord?”

A foolish son is a grief and anguish to his father
And bitterness to her who gave birth to him.

“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,
And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,
Among them [will be] the blind and the lame,
The woman with child and she who labors in childbirth, together;
A great company, they will return here [to Jerusalem].

But if a widow has children or grandchildren [who are adults], see to it that these first learn to show great respect to their own family [as their religious duty and natural obligation], and to compensate their parents or grandparents [for their upbringing]; for this is acceptable and pleasing in the sight of God.

who will not receive a hundred times as much now in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms—along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.