Orphan: General Scriptures Concerning

You must not mistreat any widow or orphan. …

He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

At the end of every three years, bring a tenth of all your produce for that year and lay it up within your gates.

Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

…and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security. …

When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

Then you shall declare in the presence of the LORD your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments.

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

…because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy.

If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail, …

…if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

You have heard, O LORD, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear,

…to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.

Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.

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

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.

The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.

Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,

…to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

…if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

…then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.”

Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.