Widow, widows, widowed women

(Gen. 38:11; Deut. 16:11, 14, and elsewhere). By this word is usually understood a woman who has lost her husband. More than 200 years before the legislation of Moses, widows left childless by the death of their husbands had the right to marry the younger unmarried brother of the deceased husband, so that he might raise up seed to the departed (Matt. 22:24–30). Thus Tamar was married to two elder sons of Judah, and even a third son, Shelah, was promised to her as husband (Gen. 38).

By the law of Moses such marriages were commanded not without purpose (Deut. 25:5, 6). More distant relatives could act likewise, as we see from the story of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth 4). Since the bearing of children was considered a great blessing of God, especially among the Hebrew people, from whom the promised Messiah was to come, remaining a widow, especially in the prime and middle years of a woman’s life, was considered a great disgrace and dishonor (Isa. 4:1; 54:4). However, the widows of kings might remain in a state of widowhood and were regarded as the property, though not always, of the wives of his successor, and to ask for one or another of them in marriage meant openly to lay claim to the royal throne (1 Kings 2:13, 25).

The provisions of the law concerning widows were nearly the same as the provisions concerning the poor and needy in general; they were left to the care partly of relatives, partly of the whole community (Exod. 22:22; Deut. 10:18, and others); they had a share in the sacrifices and tithes (Deut. 14:29; 16:11); they were given the sheaves forgotten in the field during harvest (Deut. 24:19), and the remainder on the olive trees and grapevines (v. 21); it was forbidden to take a widow’s garment in pledge (Deut. 24:17); the children of a widow could not be made slaves or made to do slave labor (Lev. 25:39, 40).

With particular force the law impressed upon its hearers not to wrong widows (Exod. 22:22). In the apostolic church, widows were maintained at public expense (Acts 6:1–6), and assistance was given to them daily, under the supervision of special persons, such as, for example, deaconesses (1 Tim. 5:3–16; Rom. 16:1; Acts 6:1–6). St. Paul the Apostle gives special instructions concerning widows. He commands that assistance be given to true widows, who are alone, and God-fearing (1 Tim. 5:3–16; Rom. 16:1).