While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself to the ground before the temple of God, a very large crowd of Israelites – men, women, and children alike – gathered around him. The people wept loudly. ¹ 

For the matter concerning the queen will spread to all the women, leading them to treat their husbands with contempt, saying, ‘When King Ahasuerus gave orders to bring Queen Vashti into his presence, she would not come.’

I said, ¹  “So now, ²  you wailing women, hear what the Lord says. ³  Open your ears to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and each of you teach your neighbor ⁴  this lament.

They also led off all the men, women, children, and royal princesses ¹  that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, had left with Gedaliah, ²  the son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan. This included the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah.

They will burn down your houses and execute judgments on you in front of many women. Thus I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer give gifts to your clients. ¹ 

He will not respect ¹  the gods of his fathers – not even the god loved by women. ²  He will not respect any god; he will elevate himself above them all.

This is what the Lord says: “Because the Ammonites have committed three crimes ¹  – make that four! ²  – I will not revoke my decree of judgment. ³  They ripped open Gilead’s pregnant women ⁴  so they could expand their territory.

Then I looked again and saw two women ¹  going forth with the wind in their wings (they had wings like those of a stork) and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ¹  to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. ² 

and requested letters from him to the synagogues ¹  in Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, ²  either men or women, he could bring them as prisoners ³  to Jerusalem. ⁴ 

On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down ¹  and began to speak ²  to the women ³  who had assembled there. ⁴ 

Every woman who was skilled ¹  spun with her hands and brought what she had spun, blue, purple, or scarlet yarn, or fine linen,

So her sons ¹  married ²  Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) ³  And they continued to live there about ten years.

So the two of them ¹  journeyed together until they arrived in Bethlehem. ² When they entered ³  Bethlehem, ⁴  the whole village was excited about their arrival. ⁵  The women of the village said, ⁶  “Can this be Naomi?” ⁷ 

not counting ¹  their male and female servants, who numbered 7,337. They also had 200 male and female singers

Should we then in your case hear that you do all this great evil, thereby being unfaithful to our God by marrying ¹  foreign wives?”

I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves. ¹  I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage. ² 

These things may be treated as an allegory, ¹  for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.

¹ When ²  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ³  with the daughters of Moab.

Every year ¹  Israelite women commemorate ²  the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days. ³