God's Promise of No More Miscarriages in the Bible
The Old Testament contains a specific promise from God regarding the absence of miscarriage and barrenness among the Israelite people. Exodus 23:26 states, "There will be no one suffering miscarriage or infertile in your land. I will make full the number of your days" [2]. This promise is understood by some interpreters, such as John Gill, to mean that there would be no abortions or miscarriages, nor sterility or barrenness, among either the Israelites or their livestock, leading to a great increase in both human and animal populations [6].
This promise is part of a broader theme of God's covenantal faithfulness and his desire for the fruitfulness and well-being of his people. God's promises are often presented as pledges, confirmed by his own character and sometimes by an oath [4, 7]. For instance, God established a covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth by flood, and the rainbow serves as a sign and pledge of this promise [1, 5, 11]. Similarly, the promise in Exodus 23:26 can be seen as an assurance of divine blessing for obedience within the covenant.
The concept of God granting offspring and overcoming barrenness is also evident in other biblical narratives. For example, God promised Abraham a son through Sarah, despite her advanced age and barrenness, a promise that Augustine highlights as a significant act of God's attestation [9, 10]. The Midrash Rabbah interprets Numbers 5:28, concerning a woman who was not defiled, to mean that if she was previously barren, she would conceive offspring as a reward [8]. These instances underscore a divine pattern of intervention to ensure fertility and the continuation of lineage, particularly within the context of God's covenant people.
The promise in Exodus 23:26 is not merely an announcement of natural outcomes but a direct declaration from a personal God who speaks, promises, and threatens [7]. It is distinct from general cosmic laws, emphasizing God's active involvement in the lives of his people. The fulfillment of such promises is contingent on the faithfulness of God, who remembers his promises and is faithful to them [4].
While the promise in Exodus 23:26 specifically addresses the physical well-being and fruitfulness of the Israelites in their land, it reflects a broader biblical understanding of God's desire for life and flourishing. The "full assurance of faith" mentioned in Hebrews 10:22 refers to an unwavering conviction in the truth of God's declarations [3]. This assurance extends to the promises God makes, including those concerning physical blessings and the continuation of life.
Sources
- Genesis “I will establish my covenant with you: All flesh will not be cut off any more by the waters of the flood, neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.” -- Genesis 9:11”
- Exodus “Exodus 23:26 (LEB) — There will be no one suffering miscarriage or infertile in your land. I will make full the number of your days.”
- Easton's Bible Dictionary “Easton's Bible Dictionary: Assurance — The resurrection of Jesus (Acts 17:31) is the "assurance" (Gr. pistis, generally rendered "faith") or pledge God has given that his revelation is true and worthy of acceptance. The "full assurance [Gr. plerophoria, full bearing'] of faith" (Heb. 10:22) is a fulness of faith in God which leaves no room for doubt. The "full assurance of understanding" (Col. 2:2) is an entire unwavering conviction of the truth of the declarations of Scripture, a joyful steadfastness on the part of any one of conviction that he has grasped the very truth. The "full assurance ”
- Torrey's Topical Textbook “Torrey's Topical Textbook: Promises of God, The — Contained in the Scriptures -- Ro 1:2. Made in Christ -- Eph 3:6; 2Ti 1:1. Made to Christ. -- Ga 3:16,19. Abraham. -- Ge 12:3,7; Ga 3:16. Isaac. -- Ge 26:3,4. Jacob. -- Ge 28:14. David. -- 2Sa 7:12; Ps 89:3,4,35,36. The Israelites. -- Ro 9:4. The Fathers. -- Ac 13:32; 26:6,7. All who are called of God. -- Ac 2:39. Those who love him. -- Jas 1:12; 2:5. Confirmed by an oath -- Ps 89:3,4; Heb 8:6. Covenant established upon -- Heb 8:6. God is faithful to -- Tit 1:2; Heb 10:23. God remembers -- Ps 105:42; Lu 1:54,55. Are Good. -- 1Ki 8:56. Holy. -- ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 65: a pledge of the promise which He had made. When he promised to Abraham to be a God to him and to his seed after him, He appointed circumcision as the seal and pledge of that promise. So when He promised to save men 589 by the blood of Christ and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, he appointed baptism to be, not only the sign, but also the seal and pledge of those exceeding great and precious promises. No believer in the Bible can look on the rainbow without having his faith strengthened in the promise that a deluge shall never again destr”
- Exodus (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Exodus 23:24: There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren in the land,.... There shall be no abortions or miscarriages, nor sterility or barrenness, either among the Israelites, or their cattle of every kind, so that there should be a great increase, both of men and beasts: the number of thy days I will fulfil; which was fixed for each of them, in his eternal purposes and decrees; or what, according to the temperament of their bodies and the course of nature, which, humanly speaking, it might be supposed they would arrive unto; or generally the common term of human life,”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 63: general law or economy. It is, however, to be remembered that God is a person, capable of speaking with other persons, of promising and threatening. These promises are not merely announcements of the results of cosmical laws, physical or moral. That Christ should be born of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the house of David, is not to be attributed to the working of any general law. Nothing pertaining to his advent, his person, his work, or to the application of his redemption, is to be accounted for in any such way. Ou”
- Midrash Rabbah (Jewish (Rabbinic)) “Midrash Rabbah, Bamidbar Rabbah 9:25: “And if the woman was not defiled, and she is pure, she will be absolved and will conceive offspring” (Numbers 5:28). “And if the woman was not defiled” – in the past; “and she is pure” – in the future 102 If she is unfaithful to her husband in the future, she will receive the punishment as a consequence of the waters of bitterness which she drank. ; at that moment she is absolved from the curses and the oath. “And will conceive offspring” – Rabbi Eliezer says: The suffering is sufficient for her to be given children as her reward; if she was barren, she w”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 26.--OF GOD'S ATTESTATION TO ABRAHAM, BY WHICH HE ASSURES HIM, WHEN NOW OLD, OF A SON BY THE BARREN SARAH, AND APPOINTS HIM THE FATHER OF THE NATIONS, AND SEALS HIS FAITH IN THE PROMISE BY THE S (part 1): After these things Ishmael was born of Hagar; and Abraham might think that in him 326 was fulfilled what God had promised him, saying, when he wished to adopt his home-born servant, "This shall not be thine heir: but he that shall come forth of thee, he shall be thine heir."(2) Therefore, lest he should think that what was promi”
- Genesis (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Genesis 23:1: And Sarah was a hundred and seven and twenty years old - It is worthy of remark that Sarah is the only woman in the sacred writings whose age, death, and burial are distinctly noted. And she has been deemed worthy of higher honor, for St. Paul, Gal 4:22, Gal 4:23, makes her a type of the Church of Christ; and her faith in the accomplishment of God's promise, that she should have a son, when all natural probabilities were against it, is particularly celebrated in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Heb 11:11. Sarah was about ninety-one years old when Isaac was born, and she”
- Genesis (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Genesis 9:9: And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you,.... Not the covenant of grace in Christ, but of the preservation of the creatures in common, a promise that they should not be destroyed any more by a flood; to which promise it seems an oath was annexed, as appears from Isa 54:9 which passage refers to this covenant, as Aben Ezra on the place observes; and both to raise attention to what is here affirmed, and to show the certainty of it, the word "behold" is prefixed to it; nor is it amiss what Jarchi observes, that this follows upon the direction and exhortation to pr”