You will then eat your own offspring, ¹  the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you, because of the severity of the siege ²  by which your enemies will constrict you.

but Hannah did not go up with them. ¹  Instead she told her husband, “Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the Lord, and he will remain there from then on.”

As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention. ¹ 

So he went down and dipped in the Jordan seven times, as the prophet had instructed. ¹  His skin became as smooth as a young child’s ²  and he was healed.

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea ¹  says this, O fortress of the sea: “I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” ² 

We were pregnant, we strained, we gave birth, as it were, to wind. ¹  We cannot produce deliverance on the earth; people to populate the world are not born. ² 

So the Lord’s word to them will sound like meaningless gibberish, senseless babbling, a syllable here, a syllable there. ¹  As a result, they will fall on their backsides when they try to walk, ²  and be injured, ensnared, and captured. ³ 

“I have been inactive ¹  for a long time; I kept quiet and held back. Like a woman in labor I groan; I pant and gasp. ² 

They have also built places of worship ¹  in a place called Topheth ²  in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they can sacrifice their sons and daughters by fire. That is something I never commanded them to do! Indeed, it never even entered my mind to command such a thing! ³ 

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.” ¹ 

ר (Resh) Look, O Lord! Consider! ¹  Whom have you ever afflicted ²  like this? Should women eat their offspring, ³  their healthy infants? ⁴  Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s ⁵  sanctuary?

As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water; ¹  you were certainly not rubbed down with salt, nor wrapped with blankets. ² 

The roar of battle will rise against your people; all your fortresses will be devastated, just as Shalman devastated ¹  Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

Will the Lord accept a thousand rams, or ten thousand streams of olive oil? Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion, my offspring – my own flesh and blood – for my sin? ¹ 

At that time Jesus said, ¹  “I praise ²  you, Father, Lord ³  of heaven and earth, because ⁴  you have hidden these things from the wise ⁵  and intelligent, and revealed them to little children.

The angel replied, ¹  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow ²  you. Therefore the child ³  to be born ⁴  will be holy; ⁵  he will be called the Son of God.

They will demolish you ¹  – you and your children within your walls ²  – and they will not leave within you one stone ³  on top of another, ⁴  because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” ⁵ 

On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, ¹  Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while ²  guards in front of the door were keeping watch ³  over the prison.

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election ¹  would stand, not by works but by ²  his calling) ³  –