Category:Birth

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Birth - As soon as a child was born it was washed, and rubbed with salt (Ezekiel 16:4), and then swathed with bandages (Job 38:9; Luke 2:7, Luke 2:12). A Hebrew mother remained forty days in seclusion after the birth of a son, and after the birth of a daughter double that number of days (80 days). At the close of that period she entered into the tabernacle or temple and offered up a sacrifice of purification (Leviticus 12:1; Luke 2:22). A son was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, being thereby consecrated to God (Genesis 17:10; compare Romans 4:11). Seasons of misfortune are likened to the pains of a woman in travail, and seasons of prosperity to the joy that succeeds child-birth (Isaiah 13:8; Jeremiah 4:31; John 16:21 - 16:22). The natural birth is referred to as the emblem of the new birth (John 3:3; Galatians 6:15; Titus 3:5, etc.).