to send away · verb, piel perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
widows
אַ֭לְמָנוֹת'Al.ma.not
H490
a widow · noun, common feminine plural absolute
empty
רֵיקָ֑םrei.Kam
H7387
emptily · adverb
arms
וּזְרֹע֖וֹתu.ze.ro.'ot
H2220
the arm (as stretched out) · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural construct
fatherless
יְתֹמִ֣יםye.to.Mim
H3490
a bereaved person · noun, common masculine plural absolute
broken
יְדֻכָּֽאye.du.Ka'
H1792
to crumble · verb, pual imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 24:3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
Job 24:21 He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.
Ezekiel 22:7 In thee have they set light by father and mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger: in thee have they ve…
Job 31:21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
Isaiah 10:2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they m…
Exodus 22:21-24 Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 27:19 Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Job 29:12-13 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 22:5-14
Eliphaz and his companions had condemned Job, in general, as a wicked man and a hypocrite; but none of them had descended to particulars, nor drawn up any articles of impeachment against him, until Eliphaz did so here, where he positively and expressly charges him with many high crimes and misdemeanours, which, if he had really been guilty of them, might well have justified them in their harsh censures of him. "Come," says Eliphaz, "we have been too long beating about the bush, too tender of Job and afraid of grieving him, which has but confirmed him in his self-justification. It is high time to deal plainly with him. We have condemned him by parables, but that does not answer the end; he is…
empty--without their wants being relieved (Gen 31:42). The Mosaic law especially protected the widow and fatherless (Exo 22:22); the violation of it in their case by the great is a complaint of the prophets (Isa 1:17).
arms--supports, helps, on which one leans (Hos 7:15). Thou hast robbed them of their only stay. Job replies in Job 29:11-16.
John Gill on Job 22:9
Thou hast sent widows away empty,.... Either out of their own houses, which he spoiled, and devoured, and stripped, and cleared of all that were in them, as did the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, Matthew 23:14; or out of his own house, when they came to him, as a rich man, for charity; as they came to him wanting relief, they went away so; if without food and clothing, they were bid to depart without giving them anything to feed and clothe them with; or if they came to him as a civil magistrate to have justice done them, and to be delivered out of the hands of their oppressors, they could not obtain any, but were dismissed without it; how contrary is this to Job 29:13;
and the arms…
6 For thou distrainedst thy brother without cause,
And the clothes of the naked thou strippedst off.
7 Thou gavest no water to the languishing,
And thou refusedst bread to the hungry.
8 And the man of the arm-the land was his,
And the honourable man dwelt therein.
9 Thou sentest widows away empty,
And the arms of the orphan are broken.
The reason of exceeding great suffering most be exceeding great sins. Job must have committed such sins as are here cited; therefore Eliphaz directly attributes guilt to him, since he thinks thus to tear down the disguise of the hypocrite. The strophe contains no reference to the Mosaic law: the compassionate Mosaic laws respecting duties towards widows and or…
The Church Fathers
Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless hast thou broken. The common multitudes that are brought under to heretics on their preaching by a carnal understanding conceive the corrupt seeds of their false doctrine, and are joined to them in their condemnation. But when the preachers of errors themselves, Holy Church either receives into her bosom subdued by reason, or binds in under the fetters of her discipline, being hardened by attachment to evil; heretics, being deserted, when they see that the people remain left with themselves without preachers, what else do they but lament the 'widows' left empty by Holy Church? And whereas when the masters of heretics are withdrawn, they imagine that their disciples are enfeebled in their practice, they complain that the arms of the fatherless are broken by Holy Church as it were. Or in another way, because when Holy Church receives persons coming to her from heretics, it is plain without a doubt that she stands up against their former error. Thus there are some that are so attached to virginity of the flesh, that they condemn marriage, and there are some who so extol abstinence, that they abhor those that take necessary nourishment. Concerning whom it is said by Paul, Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain, from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe. Those persons then seeing she recalls from the carnal bias of their superstitious belief, when heretics see such living otherwise than they taught them, they bear witness that to the way of acting which they before maintained, their 'arms are broken' by Holy Church. And hence in this period of discipline, if any piece of misfortune chance to befall her, they suppose that it has come in meet retribution for her sins.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Orphan · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Widows · The wicked: Send, away empty — The wicked: Send, away empty
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The Old Testament gives Israel the responsibility of caring for widows and orphans (Deut 10:18; 14:29) and repeatedly condemns their neglect as the worst of social evils (Exod 22:22-24; Deut 27:19). Job agreed that it was wicked (Job 24:3, 21) but claimed that he was innocent (29:12-13; 31:16-18, 21).
Rashi on Job 22:8
Does a strong man own the earth This is a question. Because you were strong, should you inherit the earth?
remain therein Is he fit to remain in existence?
