1 Timothy 5:5
New International Version
The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.

New Living Translation
Now a true widow, a woman who is truly alone in this world, has placed her hope in God. She prays night and day, asking God for his help.

English Standard Version
She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,

Berean Standard Bible
The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.

Berean Literal Bible
Now she who is a widow indeed, and being left alone, has hope in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

King James Bible
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

New King James Version
Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

New American Standard Bible
Now she who is actually a widow and has been left alone has set her hope on God, and she continues in requests and prayers night and day.

NASB 1995
Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day.

NASB 1977
Now she who is a widow indeed, and who has been left alone has fixed her hope on God, and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day.

Legacy Standard Bible
Now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone, has fixed her hope on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

Amplified Bible
Now a woman who is really a widow and has been left [entirely] alone [without adequate income] trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

Christian Standard Bible
The widow who is truly in need and left all alone has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers;

Holman Christian Standard Bible
The real widow, left all alone, has put her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers;

American Standard Version
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, hath her hope set on God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
But whoever is truly a widow and is alone, her hope is upon God and continues in prayer and in supplication, night and day;

Contemporary English Version
A widow who is really in need is one who doesn't have any relatives. She has faith in God, and she keeps praying to him night and day, asking for his help.

Douay-Rheims Bible
But she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, let her trust in God, and continue in supplications and prayers night and day.

English Revised Version
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, hath her hope set on God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
A widow who has no family has placed her confidence in God by praying and asking for his help night and day.

Good News Translation
A widow who is all alone, with no one to take care of her, has placed her hope in God and continues to pray and ask him for his help night and day.

International Standard Version
A woman who has no other family members to care for her and who is left all alone has placed her hope in God and devotes herself to petitions and prayers night and day.

Literal Standard Version
And she who is really a widow and desolate, has hoped on God, and remains in the supplications and in the prayers night and day,

Majority Standard Bible
The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers.

New American Bible
The real widow, who is all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

NET Bible
But the widow who is truly in need, and completely on her own, has set her hope on God and continues in her pleas and prayers night and day.

New Revised Standard Version
The real widow, left alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day;

New Heart English Bible
Now she who is a widow indeed, and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

Webster's Bible Translation
Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.

Weymouth New Testament
A widow who is really in need, friendless and desolate, has her hopes fixed on God, and continues at her supplications and prayers, night and day;

World English Bible
Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

Young's Literal Translation
And she who is really a widow and desolate, hath hoped upon God, and doth remain in the supplications and in the prayers night and day,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Support for Widows
4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they must first learn to show godliness to their own family and repay their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. 5 The widow who is truly in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day in her petitions and prayers. 6But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.…

Cross References
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.

Acts 6:1
In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

Acts 9:39
So Peter got up and went with them. On his arrival, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood around him, weeping and showing him the tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

Acts 9:41
Peter took her by the hand and helped her up. Then he called the saints and widows and presented her to them alive.

1 Corinthians 7:32
I want you to be free from concern. The unmarried man is concerned about the work of the Lord, how he can please the Lord.

1 Corinthians 7:34
and his interests are divided. The unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the work of the Lord, how she can be holy in both body and spirit. But the married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world, how she can please her husband.

Philippians 4:6
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.


Treasury of Scripture

Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

a widow.

1 Timothy 5:3
Honour widows that are widows indeed.

Romans 1:5,12,20,21
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: …

1 Corinthians 7:32
But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:

and desolate.

Isaiah 3:26
And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground.

Isaiah 49:21
Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

Isaiah 54:1
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

trusteth.

Ruth 2:12
The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Psalm 91:4
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Isaiah 12:2
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.

continueth.

Luke 2:37
And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

Luke 18:1,7
And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; …

Acts 26:7
Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

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Alone Continues Continueth Desolate Entreaties Family Fixed Help Herself Hope Hoped Hopes Indeed Need Night Petitions Prayers Puts Real Really Supplications Trusteth Widow
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1 Timothy 5
1. Rules to be observed in reproving.
3. Of widows.
17. Of elders.
23. A precept for Timothy's health.
24. Some men's sins go before unto judgment, and some men's follow after.














(5) Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate.--St. Paul, after mentioning this exception to the fit objects of the Church's charity and protection, again returns to this special class of helpless ones: "the widows indeed"--a class, no doubt, in those days of selfish luxury and of extreme misery and hopelessness, often utterly neglected, and not unfrequently left to starve and to perish in want and misery.

It has been asked why, in these official directions to Timothy, the question of relief of poor Christian widows comes so prominently forward. We find also that, in the first years which succeeded the Ascension, many widows in Jerusalem seemed to have been dependent on the Church for sustenance (Acts 6:1). Now we should expect to find in the Church of Christ the same loving care which was taken in the old days, when Israel was a great nation, of these solitary and unhappy women. (Comp. Deuteronomy 24:17, where we find special laws respecting the garments of widows never to be taken in pledge. See, too, such passages as Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 27:19; Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 7:6; also Isaiah 10:2; Malachi 3:5.) Still, this hardly accounts for the statement of Acts 6:1 and these lengthened directions to Timothy. It is more than probable that there were, especially in these Eastern cities, a very large class of these desolate and unprotected women. The practice of polygamy is accountable for this, in the first instance; and the rigid morality of the Christian teaching would place a bar to the female convert from heathenism relapsing into a life where moral restraints were utterly disregarded. The charities of the early Church, especially in Oriental cities, were, without doubt, heavily burdened with this grave and increasing charge--provision for these poor desolate women; and it was to relieve the congregations in some degree that St. Paul wrote these elaborate instructions to Timothy, warning him, as the chief minister of the Ephesian Church, against an indiscriminate charity, and at the same time providing him with a system of severe restraints to be imposed upon the assisted women. . . .

Verse 5. - Hath her hope set on for trusteth in, A.V. A widow indeed (see ver. 3). Desolate (μεμονωμένη; only here in the New Testament, rare in Greek versions of Old Testament, frequent in classical Greek); literally, left alone, or made solitary, which is also the exact meaning of "desolate," from solus, alone. A widow with children or grandchildren able to support her is not altogether desolate. As regards the connecting δέ, rendered "now" both in the A.V. and the R.V., Bishop Ellicott rightly renders it "but." The apostle is contrasting the condition of the ὄντες χήρα, who has only God to look to for help, and who passes her time in prayer, with that of the widow with children and grandchildren. The second "but" in ver. 6 is no real objection; the widow who "giveth herself to pleasure ' is contrasted in her turn with the devout prayerful widow whose conduct has just been described. The inference intended to be drawn, as Ellicott justly remarks, is that the one is eminently fit, and the other eminently unfit, to be supported at the common charge of the Church. Hath her hope set on God (see 1 Timothy 4:10). Supplications and prayers (see 1 Timothy 2:1, note). Night and day. Perhaps by night and by day would express the genitive better (Matthew 2:14; Luke 18:7), as indicating time when, rather than time how long. In Luke 2:37, Anna the prophetess is said to worship "with lastings and supplications night and day (νύκτα καὶ ἡμέραν)," where the accusative conveys rather more the notion of vigils prolonged through the night. As regards the order of the words, "day and night," or "night and day," there seems to be no rule. St. Mark always has "night and day" (Mark 4:7; Mark 5:5); St. Luke uses both (Luke 2:37; Luke 18:7; Acts 9:24; Acts 20:31; Acts 26:7). St. Paul always "night and day," as in this passage (Acts 20:31; 1 Thessalonians 2:9; 1 Thessalonians 3:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:8; 2 Timothy 1:3). St. John always "day and night" (Revelation 4:8; Revelation 7:15; Revelation 12:10; Revelation 14:11; Revelation 20:10).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[The widow] who [is]
(Hē)
Article - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

truly
ὄντως (ontōs)
Adverb
Strong's 3689: Really, truly, actually. Adverb of the oblique cases of on; really.

[in need]
χήρα (chēra)
Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5503: Feminine of a presumed derivative apparently from the base of chasma through the idea of deficiency; a widow, literally or figuratively.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

left all alone
μεμονωμένη (memonōmenē)
Verb - Perfect Participle Middle or Passive - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 3443: To leave alone (solitary), forsake. From monos; to isolate, i.e. Bereave.

puts [her] hope
ἤλπικεν (ēlpiken)
Verb - Perfect Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 1679: To hope, hope for, expect, trust. From elpis; to expect or confide.

in
ἐπὶ (epi)
Preposition
Strong's 1909: On, to, against, on the basis of, at.

God
Θεὸν (Theon)
Noun - Accusative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

continues
προσμένει (prosmenei)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 4357: From pros and meno; to stay further, i.e. Remain in a place, with a person; figuratively, to adhere to, persevere in.

night
νυκτὸς (nyktos)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 3571: The night, night-time. A primary word; 'night'.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

day
ἡμέρας (hēmeras)
Noun - Genitive Feminine Singular
Strong's 2250: A day, the period from sunrise to sunset.

in [her]
ταῖς (tais)
Article - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

petitions
δεήσεσιν (deēsesin)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 1162: Supplication, prayer, entreaty. From deomai; a petition.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

prayers.
προσευχαῖς (proseuchais)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 4335: From proseuchomai; prayer; by implication, an oratory.


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NT Letters: 1 Timothy 5:5 Now she who is a widow indeed (1 Tim. 1Ti iTi 1tim i Tm)
1 Timothy 5:4
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