"David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten women, his concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in seclusion and supported them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood."
2 Samuel 20:3 KJV
Customarily, women enter into widowhood as soon as their husbands are dead. In contrast, for the first time in the Bible — perhaps, the first time in the world — women had become Widows before their husband died.
No one will accept widowhood without the due process. However, these women accepted theirs because they committed an unimaginable atrocity in their matrimonial homes.
These people were not legally married: there were concubines. In the Bible times, such kind of people were all over the towns of Israel.
The despicable act of bringing strange partners into the house after marriage became a norm. Even prominent personalities, including great men of God perpetuated the ungodly act. From Abraham to King David, even after the later, the practice was something people reckon with.
ABOUT THE WIDOWS
The ten women were concubines to King David. He had several wives, as if they were not enough; he went for more of them, who became fleshes of his flesh and bones of his bone without getting married to them.
These concubines were his favorites. He took proper care of them. Even though they were not legally married, they enjoyed as much luxuries as his wives.
In one fateful day, Absalom — the third born of David — rose up against his father because he wanted to dethrone him. After he successfully had convinced a certain group and majority of people in the land, he made his father ran away from the palace.
Thereafter, he solicited for the support of his fathers counselor — Ahitophel. Unfortunately, one of the wisest men in the land wrongfully counseled him: His counsel was incestuous. He told him to take hold of his father’s concubines.
So, he adhered to his words and demanded the presence of the women who were left in the palace after the departure of his dad.
In the presence of all Isrealites, he had an immoral act with the women, which confirmed the judgement of God upon his family for taking another’s wife. Eventually, when Joab killed Absalom, his dad moved back to the palace. Knowing fully well that his third child had desecrated the precious females he loved so much, he locked them up in a room till the day of their death.
Their punishments were too harsh as they were not allowed to come out. Even their husband, who made them Widows for life, did not check them till the day he died.
Their pains and agony are making me feel the pain of female in homes where they have to take care of children without the support of any man. Therefore, I’ve vowed to give the income of this article to people in this precarious situation. It is every christians responsibility to take care of widows.
Please, share and comment to help raise money for them. Moreover, suggest names of widow in your vicinity for their chance to be among the benefactors.
Bible Verses About Widows:
Exodus 22:24
and My wrath will become hot, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Job 22:9
You have sent widows away empty, And the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
Job 27:15
Those who survive him shall be buried in death, And their[a] widows shall not weep,
Psalm 68:5
A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
Psalm 78:64
Their priests fell by the sword, And their widows made no lamentation.
Isaiah 9:17
Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men, Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows; For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, And every mouth speaks folly. For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 10:2
To rob the needy of justice, And to take what is right from the poor of My people, That widows may be their prey, And that they may rob the fatherless.
Jeremiah 15:8
Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, Against the mother of the young men, A plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
Jeremiah 18:21
Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, And pour out their blood By the force of the sword; Let their wives become widows And bereaved of their children. Let their men be put to death, Their young men be slain By the sword in battle.
Jeremiah 49:11
Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; And let your widows trust in Me.”
Ezekiel 22:25
The conspiracy of her prophets[b] in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst.
Ezekiel 44:22
They shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests.
Malachi 3:5
And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien— Because they do not fear Me,” Says the Lord of hosts.
Luke 4:25
But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land;
Acts 6:1
Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists,[a] because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
Acts 9:39
Then Peter arose and went with them. When he had come, they brought him to the upper room. And all the widows stood by him weeping, showing the tunics and garments which Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Acts 9:41
Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
1 Corinthians 7:8
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am;
1 Timothy 5:3
Honor widows who are really widows.
1 Timothy 5:11
But refuse the younger widows; for when they have begun to grow wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,
1 Timothy 5:14
Therefore I desire that the younger widows marry, bear children, manage the house, give no opportunity to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:16
If any believing man or[b] woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows.
James 1:27
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Bible Verses About Widow:
Genesis 38:11
Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house till my son Shelah is grown.” For he said, “Lest he also die like his brothers.” And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.
Exodus 22:22
“You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.
Leviticus 21:14
A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot—these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife.
Leviticus 22:13
But if the priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and has no child, and has returned to her father’s house as in her youth, she may eat her father’s food; but no outsider shall eat it.
Numbers 30:9
“Also any vow of a widow or a divorced woman, by which she has bound herself, shall stand against her.
Deuteronomy 10:18
He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 14:29
And the Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are within your gates, may come and eat and be satisfied, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
Deuteronomy 16:11
You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.
Deuteronomy 16:14
And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.
Deuteronomy 24:19
“When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 25:5
“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
Deuteronomy 26:12
“When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,
Deuteronomy 26:13
then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.
Ruth 4:10
Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate.[d] You are witnesses this day.”
1 Samuel 30:5
And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite, had been taken captive.
2 Samuel 2:2
So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.
2 Samuel 3:3
his second, Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur;
2 Samuel 14:5
Then the king said to her, “What troubles you?” And she answered, “Indeed I am a widow, my husband is dead.
1 Kings 7:14
He was the son of a widow from the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a bronze worker; he was filled with wisdom and understanding and skill in working with all kinds of bronze work. So he came to King Solomon and did all his work.
1 Kings 11:26
Then Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zereda, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also rebelled against the king.
1 Kings 17:9
“Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
1 Kings 17:10
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.”
1 Kings 17:20
Then he cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?”
Job 31:16
“If I have kept the poor from their desire, Or caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
Psalm 94:6
They slay the widow and the stranger, And murder the fatherless.
Psalm 146:9
The Lord watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down.
Isaiah 1:23
Your princes are rebellious, And companions of thieves; Everyone loves bribes, And follows after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, Nor does the cause of the widow come before them.
Isaiah 47:8
“Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, Who dwell securely, Who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, Nor shall I know the loss of children’;
Jeremiah 7:6
if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt,
Jeremiah 22:3
Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.
Lamentations 1:1
How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave!
Ezekiel 44:22
They shall not take as wife a widow or a divorced woman, but take virgins of the descendants of the house of Israel, or widows of priests.
Zechariah 7:10
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, The alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart Against his brother.’
Mark 12:42
Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites,[j] which make a quadrans.
Mark 12:43
So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury;
Luke 2:37
and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years,[i] who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
Luke 18:3
Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’
Luke 18:5
yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”
Luke 21:2
and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites.
Luke 21:3
So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all;
1 Timothy 5:4
But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show piety at home and to repay their parents; for this is good and[a] acceptable before God.
1 Timothy 5:5
Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
1 Timothy 5:9
Do not let a widow under sixty years old be taken into the number, and not unless she has been the wife of one man,
Revelation 18:7
In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’
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