ProLifeD

This is a collection of Bible verses which are related, directly or indirectly,

to the subject of pre-born human life. A special note about Exodus

21:22-24 is at the bottom of the page.

Genesis 25:21-23a

And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren.

And the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

And the children struggled within her. And she said, "If it be so, why

am I thus?" And she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said

unto her, "Two nations are in thy womb ..."

Exodus 21:22-24

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from

her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according

as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges

determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Note: the translation of Exodus 21:22-24 is disputed. To read a short essay describing this issue, scroll
down to the postscript about this at the bottom of the page.

Job 10:10-11

Hast Thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and
flesh, and hast fenced me [or, "knit me together"] with bones and sinews.

Psalm 139:13 [from the 1901 American Standard Version]

For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst cover me [footnote: "Or, knit me together"] in my mother's
womb.

Jeremiah 1:5

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Luke 1:15

"For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be
filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb."

Luke 1:36

"And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month
with her, who was called barren."

Luke 1:41-44

And it came to pass, that when Elisabeth heard the salutation [that is, greeting] of Mary, the babe leaped in
her womb: and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she spake out with a loud voice, and said,
"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the
mother of my Lord should come to me? For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine
ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy."

Hebrews 13:2

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with
child, even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

[The Hebrew text of Ecclesiastes 11:5 is capable of an interesting alternate-reading. If the first two phrases
are combined into one, the resultant translation is, "Just as you do not know how the spirit enters the bones
of the one growing in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, the Maker of
all things."]

James 2:26

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

A Special Note about Exodus 21:22-24

"If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he
shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the
judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot."

What does this text mean? Let's start with a few definitions:

"strive" - to fight, to struggle.

"child" - the Hebrew word here is "hariy," which is also used in Genesis 17:10-17 to refer to babies after
birth. (Gen. 17:10 ~ "Every man-child among you shall be circumcised.")

"her fruit" - the Hebrew term used here is "yeled," literally meaning "fruits." This is a rare word, related to a
much more common word, "yaled," which means "to bear" or "to bring forth." Typical examples of "yaled"
include Genesis 20:7, where, after Abraham prays for the barren household of a man named Abimelech,
"they bare children," and First Kings 3:21, where a woman refers to "my son, whom I did bear."

"depart" - the Hebrew term used here is "yatsa," which means "to come out" as at birth. It is used to
describe a stillbirth in one passage, (Numbers 12:12) but this is not the usual Hebrew term for a stillbirth or
for a miscarriage (which would be "nephel" and "shakal"). In a nearby text (Exodus 23:26), "shakal" is used
to refer to a miscarriage.

"mischief" - this generally means "damage" (Hebrew "acown").

Some interpreters claim that this passage does not give an unborn baby the same legal recognition as the
baby's mother. The reasoning goes like this: it is assumed that the "mischief" involved refers to harm to the
mother, not to the baby. In other words, they would paraphase the first part of the passage something like
this: "If men are fighting, and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she has a miscarriage, but there is no further
damage, the guilty man shall surely be punished with a fine." The New American Standard Bible, in the
edition that is not updated, favored this interpretation.

However, as noted above, the Hebrew word for "miscarriage" is not used. The Hebrew text gives no
justification for adding the word "further." Also, there is no no textual reason to assume that the damage
consists only of damage to the mother. So a better rendering would be as follows: "If men are fighting, and
hurt a pregnant woman, causing the child/children to come forth, but there is no further damage, the guilty
man shall surely be punished with a fine." The passage goes on to mean that, under the Old Testament

Law, if the baby were dead or injured, a proportionate punishment should be carried out.

Since the text does not use the usual Hebrew term for a miscarriage, it seems inappropriate to assume that
a miscarriage is being described. The text seems to describe a live birth; it dictates that the mother is to be
compensated for the extra duress caused by the blow which initiated the delivery, and that the guilty man is
to be punished proportionately for any harm inflicted, whether to the mother or the child.

However, it should probably be noted that even if one interprets the passage the other way, it implies little
about the personhood of the baby. A few verses previously (in Exodus 21:20-21), there is a law for the
Israelites stating that if a slave-owner beats his slave to death, the slave-owner must be punished -- but not
necessarily on a life-for-life scale. And if the slave survives for a day or two, and then dies, the slave-owner
is not punished (except by the loss of his slave, which he caused). This does not mean, though, that the
slave was therefore not a person. It only shows one of several areas in the Old Testament in which God
bore with imperfect human social structures when He initiated His work of deliverance.