Give them, O Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse! ¹ 

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 

but from my youth I raised the orphan ¹  like a father, and from my mother’s womb ²  I guided the widow! ³ 

(just as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male ¹  will be set apart to the Lord” ² ),

“Set apart ¹  to me every firstborn male – the first offspring of every womb ²  among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.” ³ 

Do not let her be like a baby born dead, whose flesh is half-consumed when it comes out of its ¹  mother’s womb!”

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

They conceive ¹  trouble and bring forth evil; their belly ²  prepares deception.”

Yes, you are the one who brought me out ¹  from the womb and made me feel secure on my mother’s breasts.

I have leaned on you since birth; ¹  you pulled me ²  from my mother’s womb. I praise you continually. ³ 

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.

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 

When ¹  Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped ²  in her ³  womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴ 

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 

He said, “Naked ¹  I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. ²  The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. ³  May the name of the Lord ⁴  be blessed!”

For the Lord ¹  had caused infertility to strike every woman ²  in the household of Abimelech because he took ³  Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

then you must give over ¹  to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. ²  Every firstling ³  of a beast that you have ⁴  – the males will be the Lord’s. ⁵ 

“Every firstborn of the womb ¹  belongs to me, even every firstborn ²  of your cattle that is a male, ³  whether ox or sheep.

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

I have been dependent on you since birth; ¹  from the time I came out of my mother’s womb you have been my God. ²