Word study
Widow
4 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: widow, widows, widowed. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “widow” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- אַלְמָנָה almânâhwidowtranslated this way 53 times of its 55 uses · Strong’s H490Noun · Translated: widow 33, widows 11, widowed 3Full study and all 54 verses →
Genesis 38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.
Exodus 22:22 You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.
- אִשָּׁה ishshâhwoman, wife, femaletranslated this way 7 times of its 711 uses · Strong’s H802Noun · Translated: wife 251, woman 172, wives 92, women 88Full study and all 638 verses →
Deuteronomy 25:5 When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.
Ruth 4:5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and also from Ruth the Moabitess, you must also acquire the widow of the deceased in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.”
- אַלְמָנוּת almânûthwidowhoodtranslated this way 3 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H491Noun · Translated: widow's 1, put on her widow's 1, widows 1, widowhood 1Full study and all 4 verses →
2 Samuel 20:3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.
- יְבֵמֶת Yebêmethsister-in-lawtranslated this way 2 times of its 4 uses · Strong’s H2994Noun · Translated: brother's widow 2, she 1, sister-in-law 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Deuteronomy 25:7 But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.”
Deuteronomy 25:9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.”
Greek words (New Testament)
- χήρα chḗraa widowtranslated this way 25 times of its 25 uses · Strong’s G5503Noun · Translated: widows 13, widow 12Full study and all 23 verses →
Mark 12:40 They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”
Luke 2:37 and then was a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
- γυνή gynḗa woman, wife, my ladytranslated this way 2 times of its 210 uses · Strong’s G1135Noun · Translated: woman 92, wife 66, women 32, wives 11Full study and all 192 verses →
Matthew 22:24 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses declared that if a man dies without having children, his brother is to marry the widow and raise up offspring for him.
Mark 12:19 “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about widow: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.