They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.
Parallel translations
- WEB They kill the widow and the alien, and murder the fatherless.
- KJV They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
- NKJV They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless.
- NASB They kill the widow and the stranger And murder the orphans.
- NLT They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.
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
The wicked kill the widow, the foreigner, and the fatherless. They prey on the most vulnerable and defenseless.
Overview
The widow, alien, and orphan are those God especially commands His people to protect, so attacking them is the height of wickedness. Such cruelty exposes hearts utterly indifferent to God's law of love. God Himself defends these vulnerable ones, and Christ's people are called to care for them as pure religion (Deuteronomy 10:18; James 1:27).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Isa 10:2to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Ezek 22:7Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- Jer 7:6if 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,
- 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.
- Jer 22:3This 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.
- Isa 13:15–18Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 94:6 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.