A new baby

And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.

Sarah bears Isaac in old age, after years of waiting and one bitter attempt to arrange an heir another way. The narrative gives the birth itself three flat sentences and no rejoicing; the weight of it sits in how long it took to arrive.

And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there.

Hannah, who had begged for a son, brings the weaned boy back to the priest at Shiloh and leaves him there. The word rendered lent shares a root with asked: she asked him of the LORD and then hands him over. A short and costly scene.

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

A poem about being known before being seen. The writer says God covered him in the womb and saw his substance while it was still unformed. The claim is not about biology but about attention: no part of him was ever unwatched.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Children are called an inheritance and a reward, then arrows, a full quiver, and a man not shamed when he faces opponents at the town gate. In a farming society sons were labour, defence and old-age provision, and the psalm says so without embarrassment.

And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

The neighbour women bless Naomi over her grandson: he will restore her life and nourish her old age. A newborn is spoken of here as the answer to an old widow's destitution, because in that world a child was the only pension there was.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

The birth of Jesus gets a single verse. She was delivered, wrapped him, and laid him in a feeding trough because there was no room for them. Whatever the Gospel goes on to claim about this child, it starts him in borrowed space.

And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

Simeon, old and waiting, takes the infant out of his parents' arms in the temple courts and says he can now be let go in peace. He is holding a newborn and speaking about the end of his own life.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Written to exiles who believed they had been forgotten. The line reaches for the strongest human bond it can name, a nursing mother and her child, concedes that even that sometimes fails, and says this will not.

Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.

An old man's crown is his grandchildren, and a child's glory is the parent. Two clauses noticing what people come to be proud of at either end of a life, and that it runs in both directions.