Woe ¹  to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days!

Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days!

Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get ¹  a nursing woman ²  for you from the Hebrews, so that she may nurse ³  the child for you?”

Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child ¹  and nurse him for me, and I will pay your ²  wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.

So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, accompanied by her female attendant, with Abraham’s servant and his men.

Why did the knees welcome me, ¹  and why were there ²  two breasts ³  that I might nurse at them? ⁴ 

(Deborah, ¹  Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel; thus it was named ²  Oak of Weeping.) ³ 

Naomi took the child and placed him on her lap; ¹  she became his caregiver. ² 

Did I conceive this entire people? ¹  Did I give birth to ²  them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your arms, as a foster father ³  bears a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?

I got up in the morning to nurse my son, and there he was, ¹  dead! But when I examined him carefully in the morning, I realized it was not my baby.” ² 

Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! For there will be great distress ¹  on the earth and wrath against this people.

She went on to say, ¹  “Who would ²  have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son for him in his old age!”

As ¹  he said these things, a woman in the crowd spoke out ²  to him, “Blessed is the womb ³  that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed!” ⁴ 

For this is certain: ¹  The days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore children, and the breasts that never nursed!’ ² 

Can a woman forget her baby who nurses at her breast? ¹  Can she withhold compassion from the child she has borne? ²  Even if mothers ³  were to forget, I could never forget you! ⁴ 

¹  although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became ²  little children ³  among you. Like a nursing mother caring for her own children,

He hid out with his nurse in the Lord’s temple ¹  for six years, while Athaliah was ruling over the land.

The Beloved to Her Lover: Oh, how I wish you were ¹  my little brother, ²  nursing at my mother’s breasts; if I saw ³  you outside, I could kiss you – surely ⁴  no one would despise me! ⁵ 

For this is what the Lord says: “Look, I am ready to extend to her prosperity that will flow like a river, the riches of nations will flow into her like a stream that floods its banks. ¹  You will nurse from her breast ²  and be carried at her side; you will play on her knees.

For ¹  you will nurse from her satisfying breasts and be nourished; ²  you will feed with joy from her milk-filled breasts. ³