Swaddle

Wrapping a newborn in cloth was the ordinary way to care for a baby. Ezekiel 16:4 describes a child left unloved, who was neither washed nor “swaddled at all.” Lamentations 2:22 speaks of those who were swaddled and raised, then lost. Job 38:9 gives the word a surprising use, picturing God wrapping the sea in cloud as with a baby’s band. The best-known verses are in Luke 2, where the angels’ sign to the shepherds is a baby “wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.” The sign is plain and humble, and it pointed to Jesus.

5 verses

Job

Job 38:9

When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

Lamentations

Lamentations 2:22

Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD'S anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 16:4

And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

Luke

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:12

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Based on Nave's Topical Bible by Orville J. Nave (1896). Public domain. KJV scripture text, public domain.