'Children' in the Bible

“Therefore I will still contend (struggle) with you [by bringing judgment on you],” says the Lord,“And I will contend with your children’s children.”

“Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes [as powerful enemies]Have shaved the crown of your head [to degrade you].

“In vain I have punished your people [with the consequences of their disobedience];They received no insight from correction [and refused to change].Your [own] sword has devoured your prophetsLike a destroying lion.

‘Return, O faithless children [of the twelve tribes],’ says the Lord,‘For I am a master and husband to you,And I will take you [not as a nation, but individually]—one from a city and two from a [tribal] family—And I will bring you to Zion.’

“Then I said,‘How [gloriously and honorably] I would set you among My childrenAnd give you a pleasant land—a wonderful heritage,The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My FatherAnd not turn away from following Me.’

“For My people are stupid and foolish,” [says the Lord to Jeremiah];“They do not know Me;They are foolish childrenAnd have no understanding.They are shrewd [enough] to do evil,But they do not know [how] to do good.”

“Why should I [overlook these offenses and] forgive you?Your children have abandoned (rejected) MeAnd sworn [their oaths] by those who are not gods.When I had fed them until they were full [and bound them to Me by a promise],They committed [spiritual] adultery,Assembling in troops at the houses of prostitutes (idols).

“Run for safety, you children of Benjamin,Out of the midst of Jerusalem!And blow a trumpet in Tekoa [in Judah]And raise a signal-fire in Beth-haccherem [near Jerusalem];For evil is looking down [with eager anticipation] from the north,And great destruction.

But I am full of the wrath (judgment) of the Lord;I am tired of restraining it.“[I will] pour it out on the children in the streetAnd on the young men gathered together;For both the husband and wife shall be taken,The aged and the very old [though full of days they are not exempt from judgment].

The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods that they may offend and provoke Me to anger.

For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord; “they have set their disgusting and shamefully vile things in the house which is called by My Name, to defile it.

For death has come up through our windows;It has entered our palaces,Cutting off the children from the streetsAnd the young men from the town squares.

Egypt and Judah, and Edom and the sons of Ammon, and Moab and all those who live in the desert who clip off the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised (sinful, impure), and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

My tent is destroyed,And all my [tent] cords are broken;My children have been taken from me [as captives] and are no more.There is no one to stretch out my tent againAnd to set up my [tent] curtains.

“I will winnow (sort, separate) them with a winnowing forkAt the gates of the land;I will deprive them of children, I will destroy My people;They did not repent and turn from their [evil] ways.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries to which He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers.

As they remember their children,So they remember [in detail] their [pagan] altars and their AsherimBeside green trees on the high hills.

Therefore, give their children over to the famine;Give them over to the power of the sword.And let their wives become childless and widowed;Let their men meet death [by virulent disease],Their young men be struck down by the sword in battle.

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon;

‘Their children too will be as in former times,And their congregation will be established before Me;And I will punish all their oppressors.

Thus says the Lord,“A voice is heard in Ramah,Lamentation (songs of mourning) and bitter weeping.Rachel (Israel) is weeping for her children;She refuses to be comforted for her children,Because they are gone.”

Thus says the Lord,“Restrain your voice from weepingAnd your eyes from tears,For your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord;“And your children will return from the enemy’s land.

“There is [confident] hope for your future,” says the Lord;“Your children will come back to their own country.

You who show lovingkindness to thousands, but repay the wickedness (sin, guilt) of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], O great and mighty God; the Lord of hosts is His name;

For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil in My sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have been provoking Me to anger by the [idols that are the] work of their hands,” says the Lord.

because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may [reverently] fear Me forever, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

Also, all your wives and your children will be brought out to the Chaldeans; and you yourself will not escape from their hand, but you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city [Jerusalem] will be burned down with fire.’”

Now when all the commanders of the forces that were [scattered] in the open country [of Judah] and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land [of Judah] and had put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon,

Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces that were with him took from Mizpah all the people whom he had rescued from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: the soldiers, the women, the children, and the high officials whom Johanan had brought back from Gibeon.

the men, women, and children, the king’s daughters (ladies of the court), and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan; he also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah.

“Because of the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of the war-horses [of the Babylonian king],The rattling of his chariots, and the rumbling of his wheels,The fathers have not looked and turned back for their children,So weak are their hands [with terror]

“But afterward I will reverseThe captivity of the children of Ammon and restore their fortunes,”Says the Lord.

“Leave your orphans behind; I will [do what is needed to] keep them alive.And let [those who are] your widows trust and confide in Me.”

“In those days and at that time,” says the Lord, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will come up weeping [in repentance] as they come and seek the Lord their God [inquiring for and of Him].

Thus says the Lord of hosts,“The children of Israel are oppressed,And the children of Judah as well;And all who took them captive have held them tightly,They have refused to let them go.