When Life Begins

For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased

This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.

For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,

Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.

If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.