And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father.

Let his flesh become fresher than in youth,
Let him return to the days of his youthful vigor;

This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.

like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation,

For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him.

The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”

So we boiled my son and ate him; and I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.

‘Ask now, and see
If a male can give birth.
Why do I see every man
With his hands on his loins, as a woman in childbirth?
And why have all faces turned pale?

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.

“Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says the Lord.
“Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your God.

On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

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

Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”

Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything,

and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus *said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”

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

Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

“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.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

“Others snatch the orphan from the breast,
And against the poor they take a pledge.

“No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
Will be thought accursed.

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children, and she had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar.

The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength
Because of Your adversaries,
To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

So Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him.

Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people;

They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver.

Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing.

Woe to you, O land, whose king is a lad and whose princes feast in the morning.