What does the Bible say about orphans?
Bible Topic · WEB
The Bible reveals God as the compassionate Father and defender of orphans, calling his people to protect, provide for, and seek justice for them. James 1:27 names care for orphans and widows as a mark of religion made pure before God, while Exodus 22:22-24 warns that God hears their cry against oppression. Psalm 68:5 calls God “Father of the fatherless,” and Psalm 146:9 says he upholds them. Isaiah 1:17 and Psalm 82:3 summon rulers and all God’s people to defend the vulnerable. Above all, Christ assures his disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans” in John 14:18, showing God’s saving, covenant love.
Top passages, ranked by readers
Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible
- James 1:27 7 votes
Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
- Exodus 22:22-24 6 votes
“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath will grow hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
- John 14:18 6 votes
I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
- Isaiah 1:17 6 votes
Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
- Psalms 82:3 4 votes
“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
- Psalms 146:9 4 votes
Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
- Psalms 68:5 3 votes
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
- Psalms 27:10 3 votes
When my father and my mother forsake me, then Yahweh will take me up.
- Exodus 22:22 2 votes
“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.
- Job 29:12 2 votes
because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
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