169 verses about widows

Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, until Shelah, my son, is grown up”; for he said, “Lest he also die, like his brothers.” Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

She took off her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she wasn’t given to him as a wife.

She arose, and went away, and put off her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood.

“You shall not wrong an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.

“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry;

and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.

“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.

You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.

A widow, or one divorced, or a woman who has been defiled, or a prostitute, these he shall not marry: but a virgin of his own people shall he take as a wife.

But if a priest’s daughter is a widow, or divorced, and has no child, and has returned to her father’s house, as in her youth, she may eat of her father’s bread: but no stranger shall eat any of it.

“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not wholly reap into the corners of your field, and you must not gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must leave them for the poor, and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.’”

“But the vow of a widow, or of her who is divorced, everything with which she has bound her soul, shall stand against her.

He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing.

At the end of every three years you shall bring all the tithe of your increase in the same year, and shall store it within your gates.

The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.

You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.

You shall rejoice in your feast, you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates.

He shall dwell with you, among you, in the place which he shall choose within one of your gates, where it pleases him best. You shall not oppress him.

You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge;

When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves. It shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I command you to do this thing.

If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies, and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.

When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates, and be filled.

You shall say before Yahweh your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.

May Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept.

Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons;

Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don’t reproach her.

Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it. Let her glean, and don’t rebuke her.”

She took it up, and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she had enough.

So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.

David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill, to work all works in brass. He came to king Solomon, and performed all his work.

“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain you.”

So he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her, and said, “Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink.”

As she was going to get it, he called to her, and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

The jar of meal didn’t run out, and the jar of oil did not fail, according to Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Elijah.

He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”

Elisha said to her, “What should I do for you? Tell me: what do you have in the house?” She said, “Your servant has nothing in the house, except a pot of oil.”

Go in and shut the door on you and on your sons, and pour oil into all those containers; and set aside those which are full.”

When the containers were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another container.” He said to her, “There isn’t another container.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.

You have sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They turn the needy out of the way. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.

He devours the barren who don’t bear. He shows no kindness to the widow.

Those who remain of him shall be buried in death. His widows shall make no lamentation.

the blessing of him who was ready to perish came on me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.

I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame.

“If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

(no, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, her I have guided from my mother’s womb);

if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering;

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

All my bones shall say, “Yahweh, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from him who robs him?”

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”

They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. Lifts up the needy from the ash heap;

I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the needy.

Look on my right, and see; for there is no one who is concerned for me. Refuge has fled from me. No one cares for my soul.

Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

Yahweh will uproot the house of the proud, but he will keep the widow’s borders intact.

Don’t exploit the poor, because he is poor; and don’t crush the needy in court;

Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are left desolate.

She opens her arms to the poor; yes, she extends her hands to the needy.

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.

Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

Your princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves. Everyone loves bribes, and follows after rewards. They don’t judge the fatherless, neither does the cause of the widow come to them.

Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

“Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children.’

But these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in their full measure, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.

There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up.

“Don’t be afraid; for you will not be ashamed. Don’t be confounded; for you will not be disappointed. For you will forget the shame of your youth; and the reproach of your widowhood you shall remember no more.

Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?

if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;

Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday. I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives become childless, and widows. Let their men be killed, and their young men struck by the sword in battle.

Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.

Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.”

How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave!