² tn Grk “has widows.”

¹ tn Grk “refuse younger widows.”

³ tn Grk “the real widows,” “those who are really widows.”

² tn Grk “the real widows,” “those who are really widows.”

¹ tn Heb “Stop oppressing resident foreigner, orphan, and widow.”

² tn Grk “let a widow be enrolled if she has reached not less than sixty years.”

³ tn This is an iterative imperfect; the widow did this on numerous occasions.

³ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

¹ tn Heb “women.” This may be a synecdoche of the whole (women) for the part (widows).

² tn Heb “her widows they have multiplied.” The statement alludes to their murderous acts.

⁴ tn Heb “I will not live [as] a widow, and I will not know loss of children.”

² tn Heb “so that widows are their plunder, and they can loot orphans.”

³ tn Heb “I guided her,” referring to the widow mentioned in v. 16.

¹ sn Listen to what the unrighteous judge says! The point of the parable is that the judge’s lack of compassion was overcome by the widow’s persistence.

¹ tn Heb “widowed” (cf. BDB 48 s.v. אַלְמָן, an adjective occurring only here but related to the common word for “widow”). It is commonly translated as has been done here.

¹ sn This widow was not necessarily old, since many people lived only into their thirties in the 1st century.

² tc The Hebrew text reads “widows” instead of “strongholds,” apparently due to a confusion of ר (resh) and ל (lamed). L. C. Allen (Ezekiel [WBC], 1:284) favors the traditional text, understanding “widows” in the sense of “women made widows.” D. I. Block, (Ezekiel [NICOT], 1:602) also defends the Hebrew text, arguing that the image is that of a dominant male lion who takes over the pride and by copulating with the females lays claim to his predecessor’s “widows.”

² tc The LXX has “their widows” to match the plural, and most commentators harmonize in the same way.

² tn The terms “Levite, resident foreigner, orphan, and widow” are collective singulars in the Hebrew text (also in v. 13).

⁷ tn The kaf (כ) prefixed to אַלְמָנָה (ʾalmanah, “widow”) expresses identity (“has become a widow”) rather than comparison (“has become like a widow”) (see HALOT 453 s.v. 1; BDB 454 s.v. כְּ 1.d). The construction emphasizes the class of widowhood.