He then handed out to each Israelite man and woman a loaf of bread, a date cake, and a raisin cake.

If my heart has been enticed by a woman, and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door, ¹ 

This is the way ¹  of an adulterous ²  woman: she eats and wipes her mouth ³  and says, “I have not done wrong.” ⁴ 

As when a pregnant woman gets ready to deliver and strains and cries out because of her labor pains, so were we because of you, O Lord.

“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 

As a young man marries a young woman, so your sons ¹  will marry you. As a bridegroom rejoices over a bride, so your God will rejoice over you.

You who live in Aroer, ¹  stand by the road and watch. Question the man who is fleeing and the woman who is escaping. Ask them, ‘What has happened?’

Her towns ¹  will be captured. Her fortresses will be taken. At that time the soldiers of Moab will be frightened like a woman in labor. ² 

The people of Damascus will lose heart and turn to flee. Panic will grip them. Pain and anguish will seize them like a woman in labor.

The labor pains of a woman will overtake him, but the baby will lack wisdom; when the time arrives, he will not come out of the womb!

He then said, “This woman represents wickedness,” and he pushed her down into the basket and placed the lead cover on top.

“If men fight and hit a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, ¹  but there is no serious injury, he will surely be punished in accordance with what the woman’s husband demands of him, and he will pay what the court decides. ² 

“‘When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, ¹  although she is a slave woman designated for another man and she has not yet been ransomed, or freedom has not been granted to her, there will be an obligation to pay compensation. ²  They must not be put to death, because she was not free.

Then the priest will have the woman stand before the Lord, uncover the woman’s head, and put the grain offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of suspicion. The priest will hold in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹ 

So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning ¹  and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for some time. ² 

When the servants of Absalom approached the woman at her home, they asked, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” The woman replied to them, “They crossed over the stream.” Absalom’s men ¹  searched but did not find them, so they returned to Jerusalem. ² 

While Gehazi ¹  was telling the king how Elisha ²  had brought the dead back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came to ask the king for her house and field. ³  Gehazi said, “My master, O king, this is the very woman and this is her son whom Elisha brought back to life!”

In fact, ¹  I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion ²  gasping for breath, reaching out for help, ³  saying, “I am done in! ⁴  My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

Then the man said, “This one at last ¹  is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called ²  ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of ³  man.” ⁴ 

Now ¹  the serpent ²  was more shrewd ³  than any of the wild animals ⁴  that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Is it really true that ⁵  God ⁶  said, ‘You must not eat from any tree of the orchard’?” ⁷