'Child' in the Bible

Later, Adam had sexual relations with his wife Eve. She became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have given birth to a male child the LORD."

A message came from the LORD to him again: "This one will not be your heir. Instead, the child who will be born to you will be your heir."

Now Abram's wife Sarai had not borne a child for him. She had an Egyptian servant girl whose name was Hagar.

So Sarai told Abram, "You are well aware that the LORD has prevented me from giving birth to a child. Go have sex with my servant, so that I may possibly bear a son through her."

Abraham fell to the ground, laughed, and told himself, "Can a child be born to a 100-year-old man? Can a 90-year-old Sarah give birth?"

The LORD asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and think, "Am I really going to bear a child, since I'm so old?'

The child grew and eventually was weaned, so Abraham threw a tremendous banquet on the very day Isaac was weaned.

So early the next morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a leather bottle of water, gave them to Hagar, and placed them on her shoulder. He then sent her away, along with the child. She went off and roamed in the Beer-sheba wilderness.

Eventually, the water in the leather bottle ran out, so she placed the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went and sat by herself about a distance of a bowshot away, because she kept saying to herself, "I can't bear to watch the child die!" That's why she sat a short distance away, crying aloud and weeping.

and we answered Your Excellency, "We have an aged father and a younger child who was born when he was old. His brother is now dead, so he's the only surviving son of his mother. His father loves him.'

Later, the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She saw that he was a beautiful child, and hid him for three months.

But when she was no longer able to hide him, she took a papyrus container, coated it with asphalt and pitch, placed the child in it, and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile.

When she opened it and saw the child, the little boy suddenly began crying. Filled with compassion for him, she exclaimed, "This is one of the Hebrew children!"

Then his sister asked Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call one of the nursing Hebrew women so she can nurse the child for you?"

Pharaoh's daughter instructed her, "Take this child and nurse him for me, and I'll pay you a salary." So the woman took the child and nursed him.

After the child had grown older, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, because she said, "I drew him out of the water."

And you are to tell your child on that day, "This is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'

Then when your child asks you in the future, "What is this?', you are to say to him, "The LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage with a strong show of force.

He is to offer it in the LORD's presence and make atonement for her so that she becomes clean from her blood loss. This is the law concerning the bearing of a male or female child.

"Tell the Israelis that when an Israeli or a resident alien who lives in Israel offers his child to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death. The people who live in the land are to stone him with stones.

If the people avoid dealing with that man when he offers his child to Molech that is, if they fail to execute him

You are to kill every male child and every woman who has had sexual relations with a man.

When Jephthah arrived at his home in Mizpah surprise! it was his daughter who came out to meet him, playing tambourines and dancing. She was his one and only child. Except for her, he had no other son or daughter.

One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. "Hello!" he greeted her. "Though you are infertile at this time and haven't borne a child, you're about to conceive and give birth to a son.

So Manoah prayed to the LORD, "Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born."

Later on, the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The child grew strong and the LORD blessed him.

Naomi took care of the child, taking him to her breast and becoming his nurse.

So her women neighbors gave the child a nickname, which is "Naomi has a son!" They named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

Hannah did not go up because she had told her husband, "As soon as the child is weaned, I'll take him to appear in the LORD's presence and remain there forever."

Now, go and attack Amalek. Completely destroy all that they have. Don't spare them, but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, both ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"

After this, the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah's wife had born to David, and the child became very ill. David begged God on behalf of the youngster. He fasted, went inside, and spent the night lying on the ground.

A week later, the child died, and David's staff was afraid to tell him that the child had died. They were telling themselves, "Look, when the child was still alive, we talked to him but he wouldn't listen to what we said. Now what kind of trouble will he bring on himself if we tell him that the child has died?"

But as David observed his staff whispering together, he perceived that the child had died, so he asked his staff, "Is the child dead?" They replied, "He has died."

His staff asked him, "What's this about? When the child was alive, you fasted and cried. Now that the child has died, you get up and eat!"

He answered, "When the child was alive, I fasted and cried. I asked myself, "Who knows? Maybe the LORD will show grace to me and the child will live.'

One woman said, "Your majesty, this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

"Not so," claimed the other woman. "The living child is my son, and the dead one is yours." But the first woman said, "Not so! The dead child is your son and the living one is my son." This is what they testified before the king.

"Divide the living child in two!" he ordered. "Give half to the one and half to the other."

The woman whose child was still alive cried out to the king, because her heart yearned for her son. "Oh no, your majesty!" she said. "Give her the living child. Please don't kill him." But the other woman said, "Cut him in half! That way, he'll belong to neither one of us."

The king announced his decision: "Give the living child to the first woman. Don't kill him. She is his mother."

But Hadad escaped to Egypt in the company of some of his father's Edomite servants, while Hadad was still a little child.

"Now get up and go home. When your feet cross the city line, your child will die.

Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left for Tirzah. As soon as she set foot over the threshold of the house, the child died.

After the child had grown up a bit, one day he went out to visit his father, who was with the harvesters.

When the man of God noticed her from a distance, he told his attendant Gehazi, "Look! There's the woman from Shunem! Please run out quickly and greet her. Ask her, "Are things going well with you? Are things going well with your husband? Are things going well with your child?'" She answered Gehazi, "Things are going well."

Then he approached the child and lay down with his mouth near the child's, with his eyes near those of the child, and taking the child's hands in his. As Elisha stretched himself on the child, the child's flesh began to grow warm.

Then he went downstairs, walked around back and forth inside the house once, went back up to his upper chamber, and stretched himself over the child again. The young man sneezed seven times and then opened his eyes.

So he went down and plunged himself into the Jordan River seven times, just as the man of God had said, and his flesh rejuvenated like the flesh of a newborn child. And he was clean.

Josiah was an eight year old child when he began to reign, and he reigned for 31 years in Jerusalem. His mother was named Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.

"Or why was I not buried like a stillborn child, like babies who never saw the light?

Instead, I have composed and quieted myself like a weaned child with its mother; I am like a weaned child.

Even a child is known by his actions, whether his deeds are pure and right.

Train a child in the way appropriate for him, and when he becomes older, he will not turn from it.

Don't withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with a rod, he won't die.

The rod and rebuke bestow wisdom, but an undisciplined child brings shame to his mother.

"Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Watch! The virgin is conceiving a child, and will give birth to a son, and his name will be called Immanuel.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

What survives of the trees in his forest will be so few that a child can count them."

"The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion will graze together, and a little child will lead them.

The nursing child will play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on vipers' dens.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, or have no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these mothers may forget; But as for me, I'll never forget you!

"Sing, you barren woman, even the one who never bore a child! Burst into song and shout for joy, even you who were never in labor! For the children of the desolate woman will be more than the children of her that is married," says the LORD.

Like a child whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.

Ask about this and think about it Can a man give birth to a child? Why then do I see every strong man with his hands on his thighs like a woman giving birth, and all their faces have turned pale?

"Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? Indeed, as often as I've spoken about him, I surely still remember him. Therefore I deeply yearn for him. I'll surely have great compassion on him," declares the LORD.

"Now, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Why are you doing great harm to yourselves so as to cut off from Judah man and woman, child and infant from you, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

The LORD told Hosea, "Name the child "Jezreel,' because in a little while I'll avenge the blood that was shed by Jehu's dynasty at Jezreel. I'll put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

"When Israel was a young child I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son.