Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.
Parallel translations
- WEB Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.”
- BSB Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your 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 judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
- Jas 1:27Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
- Hos 14:3Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
- 1 Tim 5:5Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
- Prov 23:10–11Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
- Mal 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.
- Ps 82:3Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
- Deut 10:18He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.
- Jonah 4:11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
- Ps 146:9The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.
- Ps 10:14–18Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art 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.