Bible Strands
Job 22:9
You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Eliphaz addresses Job in an accusatory speech, placing this charge immediately after noting how the powerful claim land and honor. The statement occurs within a rhetorical sequence that shifts from describing societal injustice to warning of imminent divine judgment.
The words — The Hebrew שִׁלַּ֣חְתָּ (shi.Lach.ta) means "you have sent away," paired with רֵיקָ֑ם (rei.Kam) for "empty-handed," describing the deliberate dismissal of vulnerable women. The phrase יְתֹמִ֣ים יְדֻכָּֽא (ye.to.Mim ye.du.Ka') literally renders "fatherless ones crushed," using the verb יְדֻכָּֽא (ye.du.Ka') for the crushing of their strength or support.
The thread — This pattern of exploiting widows and orphans recurs in Job 24:3, Job 24:21, and Ezekiel 22:7 as markers of systemic social corruption. The same language of crushing the fatherless and sending widows away empty appears across these texts to condemn the abuse of legal and economic power.
Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that justice fails when the powerful strip vulnerable groups of their legal rights and material support. It requires the reader to see systemic oppression as a concrete act of violence rather than an abstract moral failure.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
Cross-references
- Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.
- Job 24:21 They prey on the barren and childless, and show no kindness to the widow.
- Ezekiel 22:7 Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- Job 31:21 if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,
- Isaiah 10:2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.
- Exodus 22:21 You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
- Deuteronomy 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Job 29:12 because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.
- Job 31:16 If I have denied the desires of the poor or allowed the widow’s eyes to fail,
- Psalms 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found.