I made you plentiful like sprouts in a field; you grew tall and came of age so that you could wear jewelry. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and bare.

She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your servant was sleeping. She put him in her arms, and put her dead son in my arms.

The tax collector, however, stood ¹  far off and would not even look up ²  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³  to me, sinner that I am!’ ⁴ 

his body ¹  well nourished, ²  and the marrow of his bones moist. ³ 

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 

As for that statue, its head was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs were of bronze.

She did not abandon the prostitution she had practiced in Egypt; for in her youth men had sex with her, fondled her virgin breasts, and ravished her. ¹ 

Gather the people; sanctify an assembly! Gather the elders; gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out from his bedroom and the bride from her private quarters. ¹ 

Peter turned around and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. ¹  (This was the disciple ²  who had leaned back against Jesus’ ³  chest at the meal and asked, ⁴  “Lord, who is the one who is going to betray you?”) ⁵ 

and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, dressed in clean bright linen, wearing wide golden belts ¹  around their chests.

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.

Can a man hold ¹  fire ²  against his chest ³  without ⁴  burning his clothes?

Justice will be like a belt around his waist, integrity will be like a belt around his hips. ¹ 

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!

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!”

The sword will make people childless outside, and terror will do so inside; they will destroy ¹  both the young man and the virgin, the infant and the gray-haired man.

My strength drains away like water; ¹  all my bones are dislocated; my heart ²  is like wax; it melts away inside me.

Indeed ¹  I am composed and quiet, ²  like a young child carried by its mother; ³  I am content like the young child I carry. ⁴ 

For after we turned away from you we repented. After we came to our senses ¹  we beat our breasts in sorrow. ²  We are ashamed and humiliated because of the disgraceful things we did previously.’ ³