Children are indeed a heritage from the LORD, and the fruit of the womb is His reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. He will not be put to shame when he confronts the enemies at the gate.
Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
. . .
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
After these days, his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. She declared,
“The Lord has done this for me. In these days He has shown me favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.
When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite.
There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her.
So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er.
Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.
Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him.
. . .