Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.”
- KJV Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
- NKJV Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; And let your widows trust in Me.”
- NASB “Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them alive; And let your widows trust in Me.”
- NLT But I will protect the orphans who remain among you. Your widows, too, can depend on me for help.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Amid Edom's ruin, God shows mercy by promising to preserve the orphans and inviting widows to trust Him. Even in judgment, His compassion reaches the helpless.
Overview
After announcing Edom's devastation, the LORD makes a tender provision for its most vulnerable survivors. This reflects God's consistent care for the fatherless and widow throughout Scripture (Psalm 68:5). The verse anticipates the gospel pattern in which judgment and grace meet, and points to the God who alone is the trustworthy refuge for the destitute.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 68:5A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation.
- Jas 1:27Pure 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.
- Hos 14:3Assyria 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.”
- 1 Tim 5:5The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.
- Prov 23:10–11Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,
- Mal 3:5“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.
- Ps 82:3Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.
- Deut 10:18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.
- Jonah 4:11So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”
- Ps 146:9The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.
- Ps 10:14–18But 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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 49:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.