Then they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the livestock and the valuables in front of them.

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

The sons of Israel captured the women of Midian and their little ones; and all their cattle and all their flocks and all their goods they plundered.

Then he said, “May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.

“Even young children despise me;
I rise up and they speak against me.

And I will make mere lads their princes,
And capricious children will rule over them,

O My people! Their oppressors are children,
And women rule over them.
O My people! Those who guide you lead you astray
And confuse the direction of your paths.

And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;

Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,

But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side,

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.

So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish.

But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.

Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers,

the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.