I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ¹  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born ¹  will be disgraced. Indeed, ²  Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.

As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed in water; ¹  you were certainly not rubbed down with salt, nor wrapped with blankets. ² 

No eye took pity on you to do even one of these things for you to spare you; ¹  you were thrown out into the open field ²  because you were detested on the day you were born.

I declared them to be defiled because of their sacrifices ¹  – they caused all their first born to pass through the fire ²  – so that I would devastate them, so that they will know that I am the Lord.’ ³ 

Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill ¹  her with thirst.

“I tell you the truth, ¹  among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least ²  in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is.

The Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

For the Son of Man will go as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would be better for him if he had never been born.”

The angel replied, ¹  “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow ²  you. Therefore the child ³  to be born ⁴  will be holy; ⁵  he will be called the Son of God.

I tell you, among those born of women no one is greater ¹  than John. ²  Yet the one who is least ³  in the kingdom of God ⁴  is greater than he is.”

The wind ¹  blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ² 

You people ¹  are doing the deeds of your father.” Then ²  they said to Jesus, ³  “We were not born as a result of immorality! ⁴  We have only one Father, God himself.”

“I am a Jew, ¹  born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up ²  in this city, educated with strictness ³  under ⁴  Gamaliel ⁵  according to the law of our ancestors, ⁶  and was ⁷  zealous ⁸  for God just as all of you are today.

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election ¹  would stand, not by works but by ²  his calling) ³  –

Think about the circumstances of your call, ¹  brothers and sisters. ²  Not many were wise by human standards, ³  not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. ⁴ 

By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him ¹  for three months, because they saw the child was beautiful and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

But ¹  these men, ²  like irrational animals – creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed ³  – do not understand whom ⁴  they are insulting, and consequently ⁵  in their destruction they will be destroyed, ⁶ 

Then Abraham bowed down with his face to the ground and laughed ¹  as he said to himself, ²  “Can ³  a son be born to a man who is a hundred years old? ⁴  Can Sarah ⁵  bear a child at the age of ninety?” ⁶ 

We said to my lord, ‘We have an aged father, and there is a young boy who was born when our father was old. ¹  The boy’s ²  brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, ³  and his father loves him.’