Chapter
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Verse

1 Timothy 5:5

ESV She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,
NIV 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.
NASB 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.
CSB 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;
NLT 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.
KJV Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.
NKJV Now she who is really a widow, and left alone, trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.

What does 1 Timothy 5:5 mean?

The previous verse taught that the primary responsibility for a widow's care is her immediate family, including any children or grandchildren. This verse defines those who are "truly widows" (1 Timothy 5:3) as women who are "left all alone." While the term "widow" has always referred to a woman whose husband has died, the implications of such a state, in Paul's era, were very different. At that time, a woman's only source of financial security was her husband and children. A woman in Paul's day who had neither of these was a "true widow." These were women left with no other source of family assistance.

Instead of relying on family, the true widow "has set her hope on God." For such a woman, her life is now devoted to serving in the church, and God is her only source of help. The Christian church, as the household of God (1 Timothy 3:14–15) is intended to help the truly needy in God's family.

According to Paul, a true widow is reliant on daily, ongoing prayer to meet her needs. As later verses in this passage share, the true widow is too old to maintain a profession, to provide for her own needs, or to remarry. The widow who has no family to help her, or an inability to help herself, is a priority when the church seeks to provide comfort.
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