12 Bible Verses about Orphans
If you are considering adopting, are an adoptee, or work for an adoption agency, you might be curious what the Bible has to say about the cause of the orphan.
The Bible is full of verses about God’s love for the fatherless and how we are ALL loved by God.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
Exodus 22:22
Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.
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Hosea 14:3
Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
John 14:18-20
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Psalm 10:14
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
Deuteronomy 14:28-29
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Psalm 27:10
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Jeremiah 22:3
This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
Mark 9:35-37
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.
Zechariah 7:9-10
This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.
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God makes it very clear in the Bible that He cares deeply for the cause of the orphan and the fatherless. He commands His people to care for the orphan and to love them and protect them.
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God also tells us that He is the protector of the fatherless and the orphan. Following God well means taking care of His children, including the orphaned.
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Written in partnership with Reach The Lost.
