god caring for widows

⁶the father of orphans and the judge of widows. God is in his holy place.

⁴Do not be afraid! For you will not be confounded, and you will not blush. And you will not be put to shame, because you shall forget the confusion of your youth, and you shall no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood. ⁵For the One who made you will rule over you. The Lord of hosts is his name. And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will be called the God of all the earth.

²⁷This is religion, clean and undefiled before God the Father: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations, and to keep yourself immaculate, apart from this age.

³Honor those widows who are true widows.

⁵But she who is truly a widow and is destitute, let her hope in God, and let her be urgent in supplications and prayers, night and day.

⁹The Lord watches over new arrivals. He will support the orphan and the widow. And he will destroy the ways of sinners.

¹⁹Cursed be he who subverts the judgment of the new arrival, the orphan, or the widow. And all the people shall say: Amen.

²²You shall not harm a widow or an orphan.

³He heals the contrite of heart, and he binds up their sorrows.

⁹Let a widow be chosen who is no less than sixty years of age, who was the wife of one husband,

¹¹Leave behind your orphans. I will make sure that they live. And your widows will hope in me.”

⁵And I will approach you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evil-doers, and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who cheat the hired hand in his wages, the widows and the orphans, and who oppress the traveler, and who have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts.

³Honor those widows who are true widows. ⁴But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let her first learn to manage her own household, and to fulfill, in turn, her own obligation to her parents; for this is acceptable before God. ⁵But she who is truly a widow and is destitute, let her hope in God, and let her be urgent in supplications and prayers, night and day. ⁶For she who is living in pleasures is dead, while living. ⁷And give instruction in this, so that they may be beyond reproach. ⁸But if anyone has no concern for his own, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and he is worse than an unbeliever.

⁴⁰who devour the houses of widows under the pretense of long prayers. These shall receive the more extensive judgment.”

²⁸In the third year, you shall separate another tenth part of all the things which spring forth for you at that time, and you shall store it within your gates. ²⁹And the Levite, who has no other portion or possession with you, and the sojourner as well as the orphan and the widow who are within your gates, shall approach and eat and be satisfied, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the works of your hands which you shall do.”

²²You shall not harm a widow or an orphan. ²³If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry. ²⁴And my fury will be enraged, and I will strike you down with the sword. And your wives will become widows, and your sons will become orphans.

¹Now he also told them a parable, that we should continually pray and not cease, ²saying: “There was a certain judge in a certain city, who did not fear God and did not respect man. ³But there was a certain widow in that city, and she went to him, saying, ‘Vindicate me from my adversary.’ ⁴And he refused to do so for a long time. But afterwards, he said within himself: ‘Even though I do not fear God, nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow is pestering me, I will vindicate her, lest by returning, she may, in the end, wear me out.’ ” ⁶Then the Lord said: “Listen to what the unjust judge said.

¹In those days, as the number of disciples was increasing, there occurred a murmuring of the Greeks against the Hebrews, because their widows were treated with disdain in the daily ministration. ²And so the twelve, calling together the multitude of the disciples, said: “It is not fair for us to leave behind the Word of God to serve at tables also. ³Therefore, brothers, search among yourselves for seven men of good testimony, filled with the Holy Spirit and with wisdom, whom we may appoint over this work. ⁴Yet truly, we will be continually in prayer and in the ministry of the Word.” ⁵And the plan pleased the entire multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas, a new arrival from Antioch. ⁶These they set before the sight of the Apostles, and while praying, they imposed hands on them.