Ayub 22:9

22:9 you sent widows away empty-handed,

and the arms ¹  of the orphans you crushed. ² 

Ayub 24:3

24:3 They drive away the orphan’s donkey;

they take the widow’s ox as a pledge.

Ayub 24:9

24:9 The fatherless child is snatched ³  from the breast, ⁴ 

the infant of the poor is taken as a pledge. ⁵ 

Ayub 29:12

29:12 for I rescued the poor who cried out for help,

and the orphan who ⁶  had no one to assist him;

Ayub 31:17

31:17 If I ate my morsel of bread myself,

and did not share any of it with orphans ⁷  –

Ayub 31:21

31:21 if I have raised my hand ⁸  to vote against the orphan,

when I saw my support in the court, ⁹ 

Keluaran 22:22-24

22:22 “You must not afflict ¹⁰  any widow or orphan. 22:23 If you afflict them ¹¹  in any way ¹²  and they cry to me, I will surely hear ¹³  their cry, 22:24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless. ¹⁴ 

Mazmur 82:3

82:3 Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless! ¹⁵ 

Vindicate the oppressed and suffering!

Amsal 23:10-11

23:10 Do not move an ancient boundary stone,

or take over ¹⁶  the fields of the fatherless,

23:11 for their Protector ¹⁷  is strong;

he will plead their case against you. ¹⁸ 

Yehezkiel 22:7

22:7 They have treated father and mother with contempt ¹⁹  within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow ²⁰  within you.

Maleakhi 3:5

3:5 “I ²¹  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ²²  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ²³  who refuse to help ²⁴  the immigrant ²⁵  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Yakobus 1:27

1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before ²⁶  God the Father ²⁷  is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

[22:9]  ¹ tn The “arms of the orphans” are their helps or rights on which they depended for support.

[22:9]  ² tn The verb in the text is Pual: יְדֻכָּא (yÿdukka’, “was [were] crushed”). GKC 388 §121.b would explain “arms” as the complement of a passive imperfect. But if that is too difficult, then a change to Piel imperfect, second person, will solve the difficulty. In its favor is the parallelism, the use of the second person all throughout the section, and the reading in all the versions. The versions may have simply assumed the easier reading, however.

[24:9]  ³ tn The verb with no expressed subject is here again taken in the passive: “they snatch” becomes “[child] is snatched.”

[24:9]  ⁴ tn This word is usually defined as “violence; ruin.” But elsewhere it does mean “breast” (Isa 60:16; 66:11), and that is certainly what it means here.

[24:9]  ⁵ tc The MT has a very brief and strange reading: “they take as a pledge upon the poor.” This could be taken as “they take a pledge against the poor” (ESV). Kamphausen suggested that instead of עַל (’al, “against”) one should read עוּל (’ul, “suckling”). This is supported by the parallelism. “They take as pledge” is also made passive here.

[29:12]  ⁶ tn The negative introduces a clause that serves as a negative attribute; literally the following clause says, “and had no helper” (see GKC 482 §152.u).

[31:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “and an orphan did not eat from it.”

[31:21]  ⁸ tn The expression “raised my hand” refers to a threatening manner or gesture in the court rather than a threat of physical violence in the street. Thus the words “to vote” are supplied in the translation to indicate the setting.

[31:21]  ⁹ tn Heb “gate,” referring to the city gate where judicial decisions were rendered in the culture of the time. The translation uses the word “court” to indicate this to the modern reader, who might not associate a city gate complex with judicial functions.

[22:22]  ¹⁰ tn The verb “afflict” is a Piel imperfect from עָנָה (’anah); it has a wide range of meanings: “afflict, oppress, humiliate, rape.” These victims are at the mercy of the judges, businessmen, or villains. The righteous king and the righteous people will not mistreat them (see Isa 1:17; Job 31:16, 17, 21).

[22:23]  ¹¹ tn The accusative here is the masculine singular pronoun, which leads S. R. Driver to conclude that this line is out of place, even though the masculine singular can be used in places like this (Exodus, 232). U. Cassuto says its use is to refer to certain classes (Exodus, 292).

[22:23]  ¹² tn Here again and with “cry” the infinitive absolute functions with a diminished emphasis (GKC 342-43 §113.o).

[22:23]  ¹³ tn Here is the normal use of the infinitive absolute with the imperfect tense to emphasize the verb: “I will surely hear,” implying, “I will surely respond.”

[22:24]  ¹⁴ sn The punishment will follow the form of talionic justice, an eye for an eye, in which the punishment matches the crime. God will use invading armies (“sword” is a metonymy of adjunct here) to destroy them, making their wives widows and their children orphans.

[82:3]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew noun יָתוֹם (yatom) refers to one who has lost his father (not necessarily his mother, see Ps 109:9). Because they were so vulnerable and were frequently exploited, fatherless children are often mentioned as epitomizing the oppressed (see Pss 10:14; 68:5; 94:6; 146:9; as well as Job 6:27; 22:9; 24:3, 9; 29:12; 31:17, 21).

[23:10]  ¹⁶ tn Or “encroach on” (NIV, NRSV); Heb “go into.”

[23:11]  ¹⁷ tn The participle גֹּאֵל (go’el) describes a “kinsman redeemer.” Some English versions explicitly cite “God” (e.g., NCV, CEV) or “the Lord” (e.g. TEV).

[23:11]  sn The Hebrew term describes a “kinsman-redeemer.” That individual would be a rich or powerful relative who can protect the family; he does this by paying off the debts of a poor relative, buying up the property of a relative who sells himself into slavery, marrying the widow of a deceased relative to keep the inheritance in the family, or taking vengeance on someone who harms a relative, that vengeance often resulting in delivering (“redeeming”) the relative from bondage. If there was no human “kinsman redeemer,” then the defenseless had to rely on God to perform these actions (e.g., Gen 48:16; Exod 6:6; Job 19:25; Isa 41–63). In the prophetic literature God is presented as the Redeemer in that he takes vengeance on the enemies (the Babylonians) to deliverer his people (kin). In this proverb the Lord is probably the Protector of these people who will champion their cause and set things right.

[23:11]  ¹⁸ sn This is the tenth saying; once again there is a warning not to encroach on other people’s rights and property, especially the defenseless (see v. 10; 22:22-23, 28).

[22:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “treated lightly, cursed.”

[22:7]  ²⁰ tn Widows and orphans are often coupled together in the OT (Deut 14:29; 16:11, 14; 24:19-21; 26:12-13; Jer 7:6; 22:3). They represented all who were poor and vulnerable to economic exploitation.

[3:5]  ²¹ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ²² tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ²³ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ²⁴ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”

[1:27]  ²⁶ tn Or “in the sight of”; Grk “with.”

[1:27]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the God and Father.”