Widows and Orphans in the Old Testament

Widows and Orphans in the Old Testament E. Ray Clendenen One or both of the terms widow and orphan are found in 69 verses of the Old Testament. How one treats widows and orphans is essentially a test of righteousness. One who denies justice to them is cursed (Deut. 27:19), and one who oppresses them shows that he does not fear the Lord (Mal. 3:5). But what is a widow and an orphan? Although when a woman’s husband died she technically became a widow (’almānâ), references to widows in the Bible usually assume that she had no male protector (including grown sons), little money, and no influence. Harry Hoffner, ‎אלמנה, TDOT 1:288–90. Numbers 30 confirms that she had no male authority figure. A woman’s vow could be vetoed by her husband or father. But the vow of a widow (or divorcée) could not be vetoed (Num. 30:9). According to Paula Hiebert, “In a society where kinship ties gave one identity, meaning, and protection,” the widow had no such ties, nor was there a male in her life “who ordinarily provided a woman with access to the public sphere.” Paula Hiebert, “’Whence Shall Help Come to Me?’ The Biblical Widow,” in Gender and Difference in Ancient Israel, ed. Peggy L. Day (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989), 130. She further explains that “ordinarily the widow’s maintenance would have been the responsibility of either her sons or her father-in-law. When these male persons were nonexistent, then the widow’s connection to the kinship structure was severed. She became an ’almānâ.” Ibid., 137. A Middle Assyrian law states, “If her husband and her father-in law are both dead and she has no son, she becomes a widow; she may go where she wishes.” J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (ANET) (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), 182. However, she might not be destitute. If her deceased husband had property and his widow had no grown sons, the property went to the widow until her minor sons were of age. If her deceased husband had a brother, he could purchase the property and take her as a wife. Nevertheless, the typical “widow” was left to her own devices. In the legend of Keret from ancient Ugarit, husbands, fathers, and sons are called to war, in which case it says, “Let the widowed (mother) indeed hire herself out.” J. C. L. Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1977), 84. An orphan (yātôm) was a minor child whose father was dead, but whose mother may have been alive. Psalm 109:9 contains this prayer against one’s enemy: “Let his children be fatherless / and his wife a widow.” In other words, let him die and leave his children and widow without anyone to care for them. The next verse reads, “Let his children wander as beggars, / searching for food far from their demolished homes.” In Lam. 5:3 the author laments that “we have become orphans (yātôm), fatherless (lit. “without a father”); our mothers are widows.” According to Ex. 22:22–24, anyone who “mistreats” a widow or orphan will be killed with the sword. Then “your wives will be widows and your children fatherless (yātôm).” In the Phoenician inscription of Eshmun‘azar, the king calls himself “a ytm, son of a widow.” Helmer Ringgren, ‎יתום, TDOT 6:479. The situation of the orphan as well as the widow in the ancient Near East is reflected in the Keret legend. A young man complains that King Keret, his father, does not “judge the cause of the widow” nor does he “feed the orphan before you face, nor the widow behind you back.” Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 102. The situation of widows and orphans in Israel is summarized by Harold Bennett. He explains that the absence of an adult male protector meant that they had limited access to commodities, it increased their chances of being victimized by debt slavery, decreased their chances of receiving justice in the courts, and made them easy targets for exploitation and oppression. Harold V. Bennett, Injustice Made Legal: Deuteronomic Law and the Plight of Widows, strangers, and Orphans in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002), 55–56. According to the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, “the widow is an archetypal image of affliction and desolation.” Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1998), 946. For example, Lam. 1:1-2 begins the lament for destroyed Jerusalem by depicting the city as a widow: “the princess among the provinces has been put to forced labor. She weeps aloud during the night, with tears on her cheeks. There is no one to offer her comfort.” And to be an orphan “meant vulnerability to poverty and disenfranchisement. . . . often orphans are used to depict loss, vulnerability and social disruption.” Ibid., 615. In Job 22:9 Eliphaz accuses Job of sending widows away “empty-handed” when they asked for charity or sued for justice in the courts and of “crushing the strength [lit. “arms”] of the fatherless.” Hartley suggests Eliphaz’s charge was that Job had “treated orphans so harshly that they had no strength even to glean a little grain left in the fields of Job’s estate.” John E. Hartley, The Book of Job, NICOT (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988), 327. Clearly such behavior was practiced by some. According to Job 24:3, the wicked would drive away (i.e., take) the orphan’s donkey (perhaps as payment of a debt) and take the widow’s ox as collateral for a loan (see Deut. 24:6, 17). In the laws of Hammurabi, taking an ox as security for a loan was punishable by a heavy fine. ANET, 176. Such animals, especially to orphans and widows, might be their only means of staving off starvation. The psalmist complains that the wicked “kill the widow and the foreigner and murder the fatherless” (Ps. 94:5), presumably for their property. Such persons had no family redeemer to avenge their death. But they were not only at the mercy of brigands. During Isaiah’s day when injustice was rampant, the prophet wrote, “Woe to those enacting crooked statutes and writing oppressive laws to keep the poor from getting a fair trial and to deprive the afflicted among my people of justice, so that widows can be their spoil and they can plunder the fatherless” (Isa. 10:1–2). The orphan may have inherited property from his father, but he was hard-pressed to defend it: “Don’t move an ancient boundary marker and don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless” (Prov. 23:10). Those who mistreated widows and orphans, however, had to reckon with God, who declared that “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow” (Deut. 10:18a). And Ps. 68:5 praises God, who is “a father of the fatherless and a champion of widows.” In Jer. 49:11 God promises, “I will preserve the fatherless; let widows trust in Me.” And in Mal. 3:5 God declares, “I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against . . . those who oppress the widow and the fatherless.” Finally, God enacted a system that was designed to care for widows and orphans. The tithe of every third year belonged to them (Deut. 14:28–29; 26:12–13), as well as the freewill offerings brought at the annual Feasts of Weeks and Booths (Deut. 16:11,14). And a sheaf of grain was to be left for them to glean, as well as olives and grapes (Deut 24:19–21). All God’s people, not just landowners, were to “come, eat, and be satisfied” Deut 14:29). And this concern of God’s heart did not end with the Old Testament. According to Jas. 1:27 “pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father” includes looking after “orphans and widows in their distress.”