Jeremiah 1:5 is about Jeremiah specifically, not every unborn child. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you came out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” —
Jeremiah 1:5 Look at the grammar: “you,” “you,” “you.” God is speaking directly to one specific person. Who? Verse 4 tells us: “Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying…” The “me” is Jeremiah. Jeremiah then responds directly to God in verse 6 ...“Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.” God answers him directly in verse 7: “But the LORD said to me… you shall go to all that I shall send you…” ...Then verse 9: “The LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth… Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” And verse 10 gives the purpose: “See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms…”......So the entire passage is one continuous conversation between God and Jeremiah, culminating in Jeremiah's appointment as a prophet. That matters because verse 5 does not merely say: “I knew you before birth.”......It says: “I knew you… I sanctified you… and I ordained you a prophet.” All three statements concern the same individual: Jeremiah, whose prophetic calling is being described......So if someone uses
Jeremiah 1:5 as though God is making a universal statement about every unborn human, that conclusion does not come from the grammar of the verse itself......The text is specifically addressed to Jeremiah and specifically connects the prenatal statements to his prophetic appointment.....
It had been written in Psalms, Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. (Ps 58:1,3)
I look at the "before I formed you" as referring unto the period after conception yet prior to the fetus becoming a living soul. since the verse uses "and" when referring unto the opening the womb being the time of the fully developed newborn.
That doesn't by itself settle the entire biblical question of abortion. It establishes the narrower point:
Jeremiah 1:5 is not, grammatically or contextually, a universal statement about every unborn child. To make that broader application, you need an additional argument. In the book of Numbers 5 verse 21-23 it says “ here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[
d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.” “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water.” the passage speaks about an abortion being performed on a woman who has committed adultry. It is described as justice be done. There is no mourning, there is no mention ending a life or taking a life.
I can't agree that abortion was being prescribed.
12 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him,
13 And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner;
14 And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled:
15 Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.
Numbers 5
It seems it was addressing the issue of jealousy a husband had over his wife.
16 And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD:
17 And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:
18 And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:
19 And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:
You have to remember these were not really a sophisticated people.
20 But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband:
21 Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell;
22 And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen.
Numbers 5
Then there is the NT.
41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:
42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
45 And blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Luke 1