'Children' in the Bible

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your labor pains; with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, but he will dominate you."

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days (and also after this) when the sons of God were having sexual relations with the daughters of humankind, who gave birth to their children. They were the mighty heroes of old, the famous men.

But Sarai was barren; she had no children.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.

So Sarai said to Abram, "Since the Lord has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her." Abram did what Sarai told him.

I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. Then the Lord will give to Abraham what he promised him."

Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, as well as his wife and female slaves so that they were able to have children.

She went on to say, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!"

Now swear to me right here in God's name that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. Show me, and the land where you are staying, the same loyalty that I have shown you."

After these things Abraham was told, "Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor --

His concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore him children -- Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.

But the children struggled inside her, and she said, "If it is going to be like this, I'm not so sure I want to be pregnant!" So she asked the Lord,

She became pregnant again and had another son. She said, "This time I will praise the Lord." That is why she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

When Rachel saw that she could not give Jacob children, she became jealous of her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children or I'll die!"

Jacob became furious with Rachel and exclaimed, "Am I in the place of God, who has kept you from having children?"

She replied, "Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with her so that she can bear children for me and I can have a family through her."

When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she gave her servant Zilpah to Jacob as a wife.

Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. Then I'll depart, because you know how hard I've worked for you."

Surely all the wealth that God snatched away from our father belongs to us and to our children. So now do everything God has told you."

So Jacob immediately put his children and his wives on the camels.

Laban replied to Jacob, "These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks. All that you see belongs to me. But how can I harm these daughters of mine today or the children to whom they have given birth?

Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.

Jacob looked up and saw that Esau was coming along with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two female servants.

He put the servants and their children in front, with Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph behind them.

When Esau looked up and saw the women and the children, he asked, "Who are these people with you?" Jacob replied, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

The female servants came forward with their children and bowed down.

Then Leah came forward with her children and they bowed down. Finally Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed down.

But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are young, and that I have to look after the sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven too hard for even a single day, all the animals will die.

Let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will travel more slowly, at the pace of the herds and the children, until I come to my lord at Seir."

These were the children of Anah: Dishon and Oholibamah, the daughter of Anah.

May the sovereign God grant you mercy before the man so that he may release your other brother and Benjamin! As for me, if I lose my children I lose them."

You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me -- you, your children, your grandchildren, your flocks, your herds, and everything you have.

Then Jacob started out from Beer Sheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little children, and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent along to transport him.

Joseph also provided food for his father, his brothers, and all his father's household, according to the number of their little children.

When you gather in the crop, give one-fifth of it to Pharaoh, and the rest will be yours for seed for the fields and for you to eat, including those in your households and your little children."

Any children that you father after them will be yours; they will be listed under the names of their brothers in their inheritance.

Israel said to Joseph, "I never expected to see you again, but now God has allowed me to see your children too."

all Joseph's household, his brothers, and his father's household. But they left their little children and their flocks and herds in the land of Goshen.

So now, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your little children." Then he consoled them and spoke kindly to them.

Joseph saw the descendants of Ephraim to the third generation. He also saw the children of Makir the son of Manasseh; they were given special inheritance rights by Joseph.

opened it, and saw the child -- a boy, crying! -- and she felt compassion for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."

You must observe this event as an ordinance for you and for your children forever.

When your children ask you, 'What does this ceremony mean to you?' --

But the people were very thirsty there for water, and they murmured against Moses and said, "Why in the world did you bring us up out of Egypt -- to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?"

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me,

If his master gave him a wife, and she bore sons or daughters, the wife and the children will belong to her master, and he will go out by himself.

But if the servant should declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,'

and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless.

keeping loyal love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children and children's children, to the third and fourth generation."

You must not give any of your children as an offering to Molech, so that you do not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord!

You must not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people, but you must love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

"You are to say to the Israelites, 'Any man from the Israelites or from the foreigners who reside in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the land must pelt him with stones.

I myself will set my face against that man and cut him off from the midst of his people, because he has given some of his children to Molech and thereby defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.

If, however, the people of the land shut their eyes to that man when he gives some of his children to Molech so that they do not put him to death,

"'If a man has sexual intercourse with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or his mother, so that he sees her nakedness and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has exposed his sister's nakedness; he will bear his punishment for iniquity.

He must not profane his children among his people, for I am the Lord who sanctifies him.'"

but if a priest's daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in her father's house as in her youth, she may eat from her father's food, but no lay person may eat it.

but then he may go free, he and his children with him, and may return to his family and to the property of his ancestors.

Also you may buy slaves from the children of the foreigners who reside with you, and from their families that are with you, whom they have fathered in your land, they may become your property.

You may give them as inheritance to your children after you to possess as property. You may enslave them perpetually. However, as for your brothers the Israelites, no man may rule over his brother harshly.

If, however, he is not redeemed in these ways, he must go free in the jubilee year, he and his children with him,

I will send the wild animals against you and they will bereave you of your children, annihilate your cattle, and diminish your population so that your roads will become deserted.

Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests in the presence of Aaron their father.

But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she will be free of ill effects and will be able to bear children.

Why has the Lord brought us into this land only to be killed by the sword, that our wives and our children should become plunder? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"

The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in loyal love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and fourth generations.'

and your children will wander in the wilderness forty years and suffer for your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies lie finished in the wilderness.

So they got away from the homes of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram on every side, and Dathan and Abiram came out and stationed themselves in the entrances of their tents with their wives, their children, and their toddlers.

Our children, our wives, our flocks, and all our livestock will be there in the cities of Gilead,

Also, your infants, who you thought would die on the way, and your children, who as yet do not know good from bad, will go there; I will give them the land and they will possess it.

At that time we seized all his cities and put every one of them under divine judgment, including even the women and children; we left no survivors.

We put all of these under divine judgment just as we had done to King Sihon of Heshbon -- every occupied city, including women and children.

But your wives, children, and livestock (of which I know you have many) may remain in the cities I have given you.

Again, however, pay very careful attention, lest you forget the things you have seen and disregard them for the rest of your life; instead teach them to your children and grandchildren.

You stood before the Lord your God at Horeb and he said to me, "Assemble the people before me so that I can tell them my commands. Then they will learn to revere me all the days they live in the land, and they will instruct their children."

After you have produced children and grandchildren and have been in the land a long time, if you become corrupt and make an image of any kind and do other evil things before the Lord your God that enrage him,

and that you may so revere the Lord your God that you will keep all his statutes and commandments that I am giving you -- you, your children, and your grandchildren -- all your lives, to prolong your days.

and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.

When your children ask you later on, "What are the stipulations, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God commanded you?"

He will love and bless you, and make you numerous. He will bless you with many children, with the produce of your soil, your grain, your new wine, your oil, the offspring of your oxen, and the young of your flocks in the land which he promised your ancestors to give you.

Bear in mind today that I am not speaking to your children who have not personally experienced the judgments of the Lord your God, which revealed his greatness, strength, and power.

Teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up.

You must not eat it so that it may go well with you and your children after you; you will be doing what is right in the Lord's sight.

Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

You are children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave your forehead bald for the sake of the dead.

However, the women, little children, cattle, and anything else in the city -- all its plunder -- you may take for yourselves as spoil. You may take from your enemies the plunder that the Lord your God has given you.

Children of the third generation born to them may enter the assembly of the Lord.

Fathers must not be put to death for what their children do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin.

Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

The Lord will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which he promised your ancestors he would give you.

Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

The man among you who is by nature tender and sensitive will turn against his brother, his beloved wife, and his remaining children.

and will secretly eat her afterbirth and her newborn children (since she has nothing else), because of the severity of the siege by which your enemy will constrict you in your villages.

The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands abundantly successful and multiply your children, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more rejoice over you to make you prosperous just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,

Gather the people -- men, women, and children, as well as the resident foreigners in your villages -- so they may hear and thus learn about and fear the Lord your God and carefully obey all the words of this law.

Then their children, who have not known this law, will also hear about and learn to fear the Lord your God for as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."

His people have been unfaithful to him; they have not acted like his children -- this is their sin. They are a perverse and deceitful generation.

He said, "I will reject them, I will see what will happen to them; for they are a perverse generation, children who show no loyalty.

he said to them, "Keep in mind all the words I am solemnly proclaiming to you today; you must command your children to observe carefully all the words of this law.

He said to his father and mother, "I have not seen him," and he did not acknowledge his own brothers or know his own children, for they kept your word, and guarded your covenant.