The real mother ¹  spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. ²  She said, “My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don’t kill him!” ³  But the other woman said, “Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!”

The mother who had seven children ¹  will grow faint. All the breath will go out of her. ²  Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life. It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day. ³  She will suffer shame and humiliation. ⁴  I will cause any of them who are still left alive to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,” ⁵  says the Lord.

Rescue me, ¹  I pray, from the hand ²  of my brother Esau, ³  for I am afraid he will come ⁴  and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children. ⁵ 

Now Adonijah, son of David and Haggith, ¹  was promoting himself, ²  boasting, ³  “I will be king!” He managed to acquire ⁴  chariots and horsemen, as well as fifty men to serve as his royal guard. ⁵ 

Just as you do not know the path ¹  of the wind, or how the bones form ²  in the womb of a pregnant woman, ³  so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

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 

“Before I formed you in your mother’s womb ¹  I chose you. ²  Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.”

And a man lame ¹  from birth ²  was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day ³  so he could beg for money ⁴  from those going into the temple courts. ⁵ 

Two sons were born to Joseph before the famine came. ¹  Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, was their mother. ² 

The conspirators were Zabad son of Shimeath (an Ammonite woman) and Jehozabad son of Shimrith (a Moabite woman).

“Why then did you bring me out from the womb? I should have died ¹  and no eye would have seen me!

The womb ¹  forgets him, the worm feasts on him, no longer will he be remembered. Like a tree, wickedness will be broken down.

Why did I ever come forth from my mother’s womb? All I experience is trouble and grief, and I spend my days in shame. ¹ 

But ¹  when the feast was over, ²  as they were returning home, ³  the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His ⁴  parents ⁵  did not know it,

She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.

Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,

When Azubah died, Caleb married ¹  Ephrath, who bore him Hur.

His sister Hammoleketh gave birth to Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah.

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

What we have heard and learned ¹  – that which our ancestors ²  have told us –