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Friday, July 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Lamentations 5:3

We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Orphan;   Patriotism;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fatherless;   Widows;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Orphan;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Orphans;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Fatherless;   Lamentations, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Fatherless;   Orphan;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
We have become orphans, fatherless;our mothers are widows.
Hebrew Names Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
King James Version
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
English Standard Version
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
New American Standard Bible
We have become orphans, without a father; Our mothers are like widows.
New Century Version
We are like orphans with no father; our mothers are like widows.
Amplified Bible
We have become orphans without a father; Our mothers are like widows.
World English Bible
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Geneva Bible (1587)
We are fatherles, euen without father, and our mothers are as widowes.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
We have become orphans without a father, Our mothers are like widows.
Legacy Standard Bible
We have become orphans without a father;Our mothers are like widows.
Contemporary English Version
We are like children whose mothers are widows.
Complete Jewish Bible
We have become fatherless orphans, our mothers now are widows.
Darby Translation
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Easy-to-Read Version
We have become orphans. We have no father. Our mothers have become like widows.
George Lamsa Translation
We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Good News Translation
Our fathers have been killed by the enemy, and now our mothers are widows.
Lexham English Bible
We have become orphans, fatherless, our mothers are like widows.
Literal Translation
We are orphans. There is no father; our mothers are like widows.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
We are become carefull and fatherlesse, and oure mothers are as the wydowes.
American Standard Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Bible in Basic English
We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
We are become orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
King James Version (1611)
We are orphanes and fatherlesse, our mothers are as widowes.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
We are become carefull and fatherlesse, and our mothers are as the wydowes.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
we are become orphans, we have no father, our mothers are as widows.
English Revised Version
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
We ben maad fadirles children with out fadir; oure modris ben as widewis.
Update Bible Version
We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Webster's Bible Translation
We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers [are] as widows.
New English Translation
We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers have become widows.
New King James Version
We have become orphans and waifs, Our mothers are like widows.
New Living Translation
We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.
New Life Bible
We have lost our fathers. Our mothers are like those who have lost their husbands.
New Revised Standard
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Orphans, have we become, and fatherless, our mothers, are widows indeed.
Douay-Rheims Bible
We are become orphans without a father: our mothers are as widows.
Revised Standard Version
We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
Young's Literal Translation
Orphans we have been -- without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

Contextual Overview

1Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our disgrace! 2Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners. 3We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.4We must buy the water we drink; our wood comes at a price. 5We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest. 6We submitted to Egypt and Assyria, to get enough food. 7Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment. 8Slaves rule over us; there is no one to deliver us from their hands. 9We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the wilderness. 10Our skin is as hot as an oven because of the burning of famine.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Exodus 22:24, Jeremiah 18:21, Hosea 14:3

Reciprocal: Psalms 109:9 - General Jeremiah 6:12 - And their John 14:18 - comfortless

Cross-References

Genesis 4:25
And Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another seed in place of Abel, since Cain killed him."
Genesis 5:2
Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them "man."
Genesis 5:3
When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:14
So Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:16
And after he had become the father of Jared, Mahalaleel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters.
Job 14:4
Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!
Job 25:4
How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Psalms 51:5
Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
Luke 1:35
The angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
John 3:6
Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

We are orphans and fatherless,.... In every sense; in a natural sense, their fathers having been cut off by the sword, famine, or pestilence; in a civil sense, their king being taken from them; and in a religious sense, God having forsaken them for their sins:

our mothers [are] as widows; either really so, their husbands being dead; or were as if they had no husbands, they not being able to provide for them, protect and deferred them. The Targum adds,

"whose husbands are gone to the cities of the sea, and it is doubtful whether they are alive.''

Some understand this politically, of their cities being desolate and defenceless.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Our mothers are as widows - The particle “as” suggests that the whole verse is metaphorical. Our distress and desolation is comparable only to that of fatherless orphans or wives just bereaved of their husbands.


 
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