Bible Verses About Children

Then the daughters of Tz'lof'chad the son of Hefer, the son of Gil'ad, the son of Machir, the son of M'nasheh, of the families of M'nasheh, the son of Yosef, approached. These were the names of his daughters: Machlah, No'ah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirtzah.

They stood in front of Moshe, El'azar the cohen, the leaders and the whole community at the entrance to the tent of meeting and said,

"Our father died in the desert. He wasn't part of the group who assembled themselves to rebel against ADONAI in Korach's group, but he died in his own sin, and he had no sons.

Why should the name of our father be eliminated from his family just because he didn't have a son? Give us property to possess along with the brothers of our father."

Moshe brought their cause before ADONAI.

ADONAI answered Moshe,

"The daughters of Tz'lof'chad are right in what they say. You must give them property to be inherited along with that of their father's brothers; have what their father would have inherited pass to them.

Moreover, say to the people of Isra'el, 'If a man dies and does not have a son, you are to have his inheritance pass to his daughter.

"If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and unloved wives have borne him children, and if the firstborn son is the child of the unloved wife;

then, when it comes time for him to pass his inheritance on to his sons, he may not give the inheritance due the firstborn to the son of the loved wife in place of the son of the unloved one, who is in fact the firstborn.

No, he must acknowledge as firstborn the son of the unloved wife by giving him a double portion of everything he owns, for he is the firstfruits of his manhood, and the right of the firstborn is his.

"If a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey what his father or mother says, and even after they discipline him he still refuses to pay attention to them;

then his father and mother are to take hold of him and bring him out to the leaders of his town, at the gate of that place,

and say to the leaders of his town, 'This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he doesn't pay attention to us, lives wildly, gets drunk.'

Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death; in this way you will put an end to such wickedness among you, and all Isra'el will hear about it and be afraid.

This was the territory chosen by lot for the tribe of M'nasheh, for he was the firstborn of Yosef. As for Makhir the firstborn of M'nasheh, the father of Gil'ad, because he was a warrior he got Gil'ad and Bashan.

So the lot was drawn for the other descendants of M'nasheh according to their families - for the descendants of Avi'ezer, Helek, Asri'el, Sh'khem, Hefer and Sh'mida; these were the male descendants of M'nasheh according to their families.

But Tz'lof'chad the son of Hefer, the son of Gil'ad, the son of Makhir, the son of M'nasheh, had no sons, only daughters; these are the names of his daughters: Machlah, No'ah, Hoglah, Milkah and Tirtzah.

They approached El'azar the cohen, Y'hoshua the son of Nun and the leaders and said, "ADONAI ordered Moshe to give us an inheritance together with our kinsmen." Therefore, in keeping with ADONAI's order, he gave them an inheritance together with the kinsmen of their father.

Thus ten parts fell to M'nasheh, in addition to the land of Gil'ad and Bashan beyond the Yarden,

because the daughters of M'nasheh had an inheritance along with his descendants; but the land of Gil'ad belonged to the rest of the descendants of M'nasheh.

On the seventh day, the child died. The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, because they said, "While the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he didn't listen to us; if we tell him now that the child is dead, he may do himself some harm."

But when David saw his servants whispering to each other, he suspected that the child was dead. David asked his servants, "Is the child dead?" and they answered, "He is dead."

Then David got up off the ground, washed, anointed himself and changed his clothes. He went into the house of ADONAI and worshipped; then he went to his own palace; and when he asked for food, they served it to him; and he ate.

His servants asked him, "What are you doing? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat food!"