'Mother' in the Bible

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Now the man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all the living.

I will bless her, and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Besides, she actually is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother, and she became my wife;

He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The servant brought out articles of silver and articles of gold, and garments, and gave them to Rebekah; he also gave precious things to her brother and to her mother.

But her brother and her mother said, “Let the girl stay with us a few days, say ten; afterward she may go.”

Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent, and he took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her; thus Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

Jacob answered his mother Rebekah, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man and I am a smooth man.

But his mother said to him, “Your curse be on me, my son; only obey my voice, and go, get them for me.”

So he went and got them, and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory food such as his father loved.

Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram.

Now in the days of wheat harvest Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s mandrakes.”

He related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?”

We said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go ahead.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

“He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

“He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.

You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.

“You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the Lord your God.“You are not to boil a young goat in the milk of its mother.

You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, that is, the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother; you are not to uncover her nakedness.

Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the Lord your God.

‘If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.

If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no immorality in your midst.

except for his relatives who are nearest to him, his mother and his father and his son and his daughter and his brother,

nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother;

“When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord.

He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head.

‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house, and mourn her father and mother a full month; and after that you may go in to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them,

then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown.

“If you happen to come upon a bird’s nest along the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young;

you shall certainly let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, in order that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days.

then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate.

‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Who said of his father and his mother,‘I did not consider them’;And he did not acknowledge his brothers,Nor did he regard his own sons,For they observed Your word,And kept Your covenant.

and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household.

So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

“The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel,Until I, Deborah, arose,Until I arose, a mother in Israel.

“Out of the window she looked and lamented,The mother of Sisera through the lattice,‘Why does his chariot delay in coming?Why do the hoofbeats of his chariots tarry?’

He said, “They were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if only you had let them live, I would not kill you.”

So he came back and told his father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”

Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.”

However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him.

The Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a young goat though he had nothing in his hand; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.

So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.

Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “You only hate me, and you do not love me; you have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people, and have not told it to me.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father or mother; so should I tell you?”

He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.”

He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you.”

So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.

Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know.

And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal.

And David went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.”

Absalom set Amasa over the army in place of Joab. Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Ithra the Israelite, who went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.

Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. However, here is your servant Chimham, let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.”

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

Then Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, “Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has become king, and David our lord does not know it?

Now Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, “Do you come peacefully?” And he said, “Peacefully.”

So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king arose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat on his throne; then he had a throne set for the king’s mother, and she sat on his right.

Then she said, “I am making one small request of you; do not refuse me.” And the king said to her, “Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you.”

King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “And why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him also the kingdom—for he is my older brother—even for him, for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah!”

Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”

He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron.

Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.”

He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

He did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, though not like his father and his mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal which his father had made.

Now Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What do I have to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother.” And the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to give them into the hand of Moab.”

He said to his father, “My head, my head.” And he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died.

The mother of the lad said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” And he arose and followed her.

When Joram saw Jehu, he said, “Is it peace, Jehu?” And he answered, “What peace, so long as the harlotries of your mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?”

Jehu met the relatives of Ahaziah king of Judah and said, “Who are you?” And they answered, “We are the relatives of Ahaziah; and we have come down to greet the sons of the king and the sons of the queen mother.”

When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring.

Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he and his mother and his servants and his captains and his officials. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.

So he led Jehoiachin away into exile to Babylon; also the king’s mother and the king’s wives and his officials and the leading men of the land, he led away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Jerahmeel had another wife, whose name was Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.”

He also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.

Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the granddaughter of Omri.

He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor to do wickedly.

Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring of the house of Judah.

He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. Now the young lady was beautiful of form and face, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.

If I call to the pit, ‘You are my father’;To the worm, ‘my mother and my sister’;

“A mother will forget him;The worm feeds sweetly till he is no longer remembered.And wickedness will be broken like a tree.

For my father and my mother have forsaken me,But the Lord will take me up.

I went about as though it were my friend or brother;I bowed down mourning, as one who sorrows for a mother.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,And in sin my mother conceived me.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

He makes the barren woman abide in the houseAs a joyful mother of children.Praise the Lord!

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.

When I was a son to my father,Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,

My son, observe the commandment of your fatherAnd do not forsake the teaching of your mother;