Some expressions attribute feminine qualities to God, especially relating to motherhood.
Descriptions of God relating to childbirth
God gives birth to his people
Isaiah 44:2 God giving birth to Israel at the exodus. See also Numbers 11:12; Deuteronomy 32:18; Isaiah 44:24
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.
God gives birth to individuals
Psalm 139:13 See also Genesis 29:31, Genesis 30:22; Ecclesiastes 11:5; Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 1:5
For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
God as a midwife
Psalm 22:9 See also Job 10:18; Psalm 71:6; Isaiah 66:9
Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast.
Descriptions of God relating to motherhood
God nurses his people
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!
God comforts his people
Isaiah 66:13 See also Isaiah 40:11
As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”
God as a mother bird protecting her young
Deuteronomy 32:10–11; Matthew 23:37 parallel Luke 13:34 See also Ruth 2:12; Psalm 17:8, Psalm 91:4
He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!
Related themes
Dictionary of Bible Themes © 1999 Martin Manser, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, via Bible Aquifer. Formatted for this site, with Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible.