'Child' in the Bible

Sarai was barren; she had no child.

The angel of the Lord said to her further,“Behold, you are with child,And you will bear a son;And you shall call his name Ishmael,Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction.

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?”

And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’

Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father.

The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

Now it was about three months later that Judah was informed, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.” Then Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”

It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.” And she said, “Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?”

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.’

But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile.

When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women that she may nurse the child for you?”

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.

The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she named him Moses, and said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

“If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide.

“Speak to the sons of Israel, saying:‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean.

But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days.

Then he shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female.

But if a priest’s daughter becomes a widow or divorced, and has no child and returns to her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat of her father’s food; but no layman shall eat of it.

When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold, his daughter was coming out to meet him with tambourines and with dancing. Now she was his one and only child; besides her he had no son or daughter.

Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him.

Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her lap, and became his nurse.

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, “I will not go up until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever.”

Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, although the child was young.

Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.”

So Nathan went to his house.Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!”

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’

Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.

The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.

It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.

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

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!”

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

Now you, arise, go to your house. When your feet enter the city the child will die.

Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed and came to Tirzah. As she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died.

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.”

The Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.

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.”

When the child was grown, the day came that he went out to his father to the reapers.

Please run now to meet her and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’” And she answered, “It is well.”

And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm.

So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” Then he answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and their young men you will kill with the sword, and their little ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you will rip up.”

Then Menahem struck Tiphsah and all who were in it and its borders from Tirzah, because they did not open to him; therefore he struck it and ripped up all its women who were with child.

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.

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

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.

Do not hold back discipline from the child,Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

The rod and reproof give wisdom,But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.

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.

But my dove, my perfect one, is unique:She is her mother’s only daughter;She is the pure child of the one who bore her.The maidens saw her and called her blessed,The queens and the concubines also, and they praised her, saying,

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

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.

And the rest of the trees of his forest will be so small in numberThat a child could write them down.

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

“Can a woman forget her nursing childAnd have no compassion on the son of her womb?Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.

“Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerousThan the sons of the married woman,” says the Lord.

For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,Stretching out her hands, saying,“Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.”

“Behold, I am bringing them from the north country,And I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth,Among them the blind and the lame,The woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together;A great company, they will return here.

“Is Ephraim My dear son?Is he a delightful child?Indeed, as often as I have spoken against him,I certainly still remember him;Therefore My heart yearns for him;I will surely have mercy on him,” declares the Lord.

Now then thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, “Why are you doing great harm to yourselves, so as to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, from among Judah, leaving yourselves without remnant,

Therefore He will give them up until the timeWhen she who is in labor has borne a child.Then the remainder of His brethrenWill return to the sons of Israel.