יָתוֹם

Exodus 22:22 וְיָת֖וֹם and a fatherless one

You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

Here: A child whose father is dead. The mother is often still alive, and is frequently the widow just mentioned. The word does not mean a child with no parents at all. The pair "widow and fatherless" pictures a household that has lost its man.

Exodus 22:24 יְתֹמִֽים׃ פ fatherless ones

My anger will be kindled, and I will kill you with the sword; then your wives will become widows and your children will be fatherless.

Deuteronomy 10:18 יָת֖וֹם a fatherless one

He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.

Here: A child who has no father, and so no male head of household to own land, provide, or speak up for them at the town court. The mother may well be alive. The word is about losing the father's protection, not necessarily losing both parents.

Deuteronomy 14:29 וְהַיָּת֤וֹם and the fatherless one

Then the Levite (because he has no portion or inheritance among you), the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates may come and eat and be satisfied. And the LORD your God will bless you in all the work of your hands.

Here: A child whose father has died. The mother may still be alive. Without a father the child had no male provider or legal defender.

Deuteronomy 16:11 וְהַיָּת֥וֹם and the fatherless one

and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

Here: A child with no father, and so no male protector or provider. The mother may still be alive.

Deuteronomy 16:14 וְהַיָּת֥וֹם and the fatherless one

And you shall rejoice in your feast—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

Here: A child with no father. That meant no male protector and no one to inherit land through. His mother might well be alive, so this is not necessarily an 'orphan' in the modern sense.

Deuteronomy 24:17 יָת֑וֹם a fatherless one

Do not deny justice to the foreigner or the fatherless, and do not take a widow’s cloak as security.

Here: A child who has lost their father, and with him the male head of household who held the land and represented the family in public. The mother may still be alive. There is no 'and' before it in the Hebrew, so it either lists a second group or describes the sojourner ('a fatherless sojourner'). See textual notes.

Deuteronomy 24:19 לַיָּת֥וֹם to the fatherless one

If you are harvesting in your field and forget a sheaf there, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Here: 'For the fatherless': a child with no father to provide for and protect them. The mother may well be alive.

Deuteronomy 24:20 לַיָּת֥וֹם to the fatherless one

When you beat the olives from your trees, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

Deuteronomy 24:21 לַיָּת֥וֹם to the fatherless one

When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not go over the vines again. What remains will be for the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

Deuteronomy 26:12 לַיָּת֣וֹם to the fatherless one

When you have finished laying aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat and be filled within your gates.

Deuteronomy 26:13 לַיָּת֣וֹם to the fatherless one

Then you shall declare in the presence of the LORD your God, “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all the commandments You have given me. I have not transgressed or forgotten Your commandments.

Deuteronomy 27:19 יָת֖וֹם a fatherless one

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Here: A child without a father: no male head of household to own property, speak for him at the city gate, or protect him. The mother may still be alive.

Job 6:27 יָת֥וֹם a fatherless one

You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

Job 22:9 יְתֹמִ֣ים fatherless ones

You sent widows away empty-handed, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.

Here: Children who have lost their father. Their mother may still be alive. In that world a father was a child's provider, protector and legal representative, so losing him left the child exposed.

Job 24:3 יְתוֹמִ֣ים fatherless ones

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

Job 24:9 יָת֑וֹם a fatherless one

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

Job 29:12 וְ֝יָת֗וֹם and [the] fatherless

because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper.

Here: A child with no father, and so no male protector, no one to speak for him legally and no secure claim to land. His mother may well still be alive (compare the widow in v.13).

Job 31:17 יָת֣וֹם a fatherless one

if I have eaten my morsel alone, not sharing it with the fatherless—

Job 31:21 יָת֣וֹם a fatherless one

if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless because I saw that I had support in the gate,

Psalm 10:14 יָ֝ת֗וֹם [the] fatherless

But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.

Here: A child with no father, and so with no male protector or advocate in a society organised by family. It is the standard example of a person who cannot defend himself.

Psalm 10:18 יָת֗וֹם [the] fatherless

to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.

Here: A child with no father, and so no adult male to speak for him, protect his inheritance or stand up for him at the town gate. Throughout Israel's law and poetry this is the model case of someone open to exploitation.

Psalm 68:5 יְ֭תוֹמִים fatherless ones

A father of the fatherless and a defender of widows is God in His holy habitation.

Here: Children whose father has died. Their mother is often still alive, which is why they are so regularly mentioned together with widows. The plural has no "the", so it names a whole class of people: anyone left without a father to protect them.

Psalm 82:3 וְיָת֑וֹם and [the] fatherless

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed.

Here: A child with no father. In Israel that meant no adult male to speak for him in court or protect the family land, even if his mother was still alive. The orphan stands in the classic list of people the law protects (orphan, widow, foreigner).

Psalm 94:6 וִֽיתוֹמִ֣ים and fatherless ones

They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.

Psalm 109:9 יְתוֹמִ֑ים fatherless ones

May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

Psalm 109:12 לִיתוֹמָֽיו׃ to fatherless children his

May there be no one to extend kindness to him, and no one to favor his fatherless children.

Psalm 146:9 יָת֣וֹם [the] fatherless

The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.

Here: A child without a father, even if the mother is alive. It means a child who has lost the male head of the household who protected him, provided for him and spoke for him in public.

Proverbs 23:10 יְ֝תוֹמִ֗ים fatherless ones

Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless,

Here: Children who have no father. Often the mother is still alive. They have lost the adult man who would defend the family's land in court and in the village. They are the classic easy target.

Isaiah 1:17 יָת֔וֹם [the] fatherless

Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

Here: A child with no father. The mother may well be alive. The child has no adult man to protect their land, inheritance and legal standing.

Isaiah 1:23 יָתוֹם֙ [the] fatherless

Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

Here: 'The orphan.' A child with no father, and so with no adult male to speak for them in court. The word comes first in its clause for emphasis: the orphan is exactly the one they ignore.

Isaiah 9:17 יְתֹמָ֤יו fatherless ones its

Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.

Here: 'Its fatherless': a child without a father to protect and provide, among the most vulnerable people in Israel and ones God is elsewhere said to defend.

Isaiah 10:2 יְתוֹמִ֖ים fatherless ones

to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

Here: Children whose father has died, though the mother may still be alive. They have lost the man who held the land and spoke for them at the town gate.

Jeremiah 5:28 יָת֖וֹם [the] fatherless

They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

Here: 'The fatherless': a child with no father, and so no adult male to speak for him in court.

Jeremiah 7:6 יָת֤וֹם [the] fatherless

if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

Here: A child whose father has died, so with no adult male to hold land or speak for them in the town court. The mother may well be living; she is often the widow of the next word.

Jeremiah 22:3 יָת֨וֹם fatherless

This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Here: A child without a father, and so without a male protector or legal advocate. The mother may still be alive.

Jeremiah 49:11 יְתֹמֶ֖יךָ fatherless your

Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives. Let your widows trust in Me.”

Here: 'Your fatherless ones.' The children of Edom's dead men. Their mothers are still alive (the widows in the next clause). What makes them a yatom is that they have lost their father, the one who protected and provided for them.

Lamentations 5:3 יְתוֹמִ֤ים fatherless ones

We have become fatherless orphans; our mothers are widows.

Ezekiel 22:7 יָת֥וֹם fatherless one

Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

Here: A child whose father has died, whether or not the mother is still alive. In a society built around the father's household, such a child had no one to defend the family's land and rights in court.

Hosea 14:3 יָתֽוֹם׃ [the] fatherless

Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

Here: A child with no father, the classic picture of someone with no protector and no legal standing. Having given up every other patron, Israel describes itself this way.

Zechariah 7:10 וְיָת֛וֹם and [the] fatherless

Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’

Here: A child whose father has died. The mother may well be alive. What the child has lost is the father who provided, held the family's land and stood up for the household in legal matters.

Malachi 3:5 וְיָת֤וֹם and a fatherless one

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Here: A child without a father, though the mother may still be alive. Without a father the child had no legal protector or inheritance advocate. 'Fatherless' is more precise than 'orphan.'