“Any vow or obligation taken by a widow or divorced woman will be binding on her.

• Number 30:9

And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.

• Job 22:9

“Now then, listen, you lover of pleasure,
    lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
    ‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
    or suffer the loss of children.’
Both of these will overtake you
    in a moment, on a single day:
    loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
    in spite of your many sorceries
    and all your potent spells.

• Isaiah 47:8-9

They must not marry widows or divorced women; they may marry only virgins of Israelite descent or widows of priests.

• Ezekiel 44:22

This quiz basically stems from research for other posts lately.  God looks out for widows and orphans.  God expects us to go to the aid of these people.  So, it got me thinking of the word “widow” in the Bible (NIV).

Thus, this quiz will be about verses containing the word “widow.”

The questions are in biblical order.  And all the questions are from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of the word “widow” in the NIV, who is told to live like a widow?
2	Was there special attire for widows to wear?
3	Who (what office) was not allowed to marry a widow, divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution?
4	In verses remembered by Naomi, what must a grower of grain, olives, or grapes do for widows and orphans?
5	Per the law, if two brothers are living together and one brother dies, can his widow marry outside the household?
6	What if the person required to marry the widow from question 5 refuses, what does the widow do?
7	At the beginning of Ruth 4, Boaz seeks out someone to ask if he will be the kinsman-redeemer for Naomi, he wants the land, but what stipulation causes him to concede, allowing Boaz to become the kinsman-redeemer?
8	In two chapters, late in 1 Samuel, Abigail is mentioned as a wife of David, but also as the widow of whom?  If not the name, what had this man refused to do?
9	When David returns to the palace after Absalom’s rebellion, he takes ten concubines and places them in a home, guarded, and treats them as widows.  What had they done?
10	From where was the widow who Elijah stayed with, performing miracles to resurrect her son and keep them fed?

Between yesterday’s Babs and Harold conversation and the post this afternoon, you would think that I used up discussion of widows.  But this is a subject near and dear to me.  Many of my friends are widows, but there are only two of them in my Sunday school class.

If there are widows like me out there, they do not have a support system nearby except for church.  My Sunday school class has taken care of me when I had a lot of surgeries and other procedures this past winter.

I am thinking of getting a home monitoring system.  You know the old joke, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”  Well, for older people, that is not terribly funny.  In fact, within the past month, I have heard of two young people falling on the stairs and dying.  We seem to have people in our church go to the hospital due to falls, even when no bones are broken.

Prayer is good.  But phone calls are better.  And a courtesy check would be nice if the person is willing.  I need to still do some cleaning.  I had great goals last year until I got sick.

Many older widows and widowers like the peace and quiet.  Churches should not intrude, but they need a better system to simply keep track in case something goes wrong.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of the word “widow” in the NIV, who is told to live like a widow?	Genesis 38:11
2	Was there special attire for widows to wear?	Genesis 38:14
3	Who (what office) was not allowed to marry a widow, divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution?	Leviticus 21:13-15
4	In verses remembered by Naomi, what must a grower of grain, olives, or grapes do for widows and orphans?	Deuteronomy 24:19-21
5	Per the law, if two brothers are living together and one brother dies, can his widow marry outside the household?	Deuteronomy 25:5
6	What if the person required to marry the widow from question 5 refuses, what does the widow do?	Deuteronomy 25:9
7	At the beginning of Ruth 4, Boaz seeks out someone to ask if he will be the kinsman-redeemer for Naomi, he wants the land, but what stipulation causes him to concede, allowing Boaz to become the kinsman-redeemer?	Ruth 4:4-5
8	In two chapters, late in 1 Samuel, Abigail is mentioned as a wife of David, but also as the widow of whom?  If not the name, what had this man refused to do?	1 Samuel 27:3 and 1 Samuel 30:5
9	When David returns to the palace after Absalom’s rebellion, he takes ten concubines and places them in a home, guarded, and treats them as widows.  What had they done?	2 Samuel 15:16
10	From where was the widow who Elijah stayed with, performing miracles to resurrect her son and keep them fed?	1 Kings 17:10

I was trying to think of a cute title for this post, but “widow” is not a very good topic to meld with “cute.”

I thought of widowmaker, but a widowmaker heart attack might be like Beetlejuice.  If you say it enough times…  I dare not finish the sentence.

A widowmaker weapon is common terminology.  There is even a character on a role-playing video game called the widowmaker.  Nope.  I am not playing that one.

I am sure there are restaurants in some far of or quite near locations that have a burger called the “widowmaker.” Sorry. Nope, not taking that chance even if it has two slices of my favorite cheese.

But then there is a widow’s peak.  The boy on the Munsters television show had a pronounced one.  I researched this and it seems that the widow’s peak gets its name from a widow’s hood, with a triangular point hanging down in the center of the forehead.  But a widow’s peak is when the hair naturally grows that way.  Marilyn Monroe, David Beckham, Vanessa Williams, and Tom Selleck are examples.

But I just called this quiz Widow Quiz.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	In the first use of the word “widow” in the NIV, who is told to live like a widow?	Genesis 38:11	Tamar, and living like a widow in those days must have involved moving back into her father’s home.
2	Was there special attire for widows to wear?	Genesis 38:14	Yes.  Tamar removed her widow’s clothes and then put them back on in verse 19 after she had tricked Judah.
3	Who (what office) was not allowed to marry a widow, divorced woman, or a woman defiled by prostitution?	Leviticus 21:13-15	A priest must marry a virgin of his own people.
4	In verses remembered by Naomi, what must a grower of grain, olives, or grapes do for widows and orphans?	Deuteronomy 24:19-21	Not pick through again, to leave some food for the widows and orphans.  Ruth used that law to pick grain for her and Naomi, and she caught the eye of Boaz.
5	Per the law, if two brothers are living together and one brother dies, can his widow marry outside the household?	Deuteronomy 25:5	No, the other brother must marry her, and their first child will inherit the other brother’s land, to not let that brother’s line be lost from Israel.
6	What if the person required to marry the widow from question 5 refuses, what does the widow do?	Deuteronomy 25:9	Before the elders, she takes off one sandal and then spits in his face.
7	At the beginning of Ruth 4, Boaz seeks out someone to ask if he will be the kinsman-redeemer for Naomi, he wants the land, but what stipulation causes him to concede, allowing Boaz to become the kinsman-redeemer?	Ruth 4:4-5	He would have to accept Ruth and bear a child to be the inheritor of Naomi’s husband’s property.  See question 5.
8	In two chapters, late in 1 Samuel, Abigail is mentioned as a wife of David, but also as the widow of whom?  If not the name, what had this man refused to do?	1 Samuel 27:3 and 1 Samuel 30:5	Nabal, who had refused to give David and his men food, but Abigail did so.
9	When David returns to the palace after Absalom’s rebellion, he takes ten concubines and places them in a home, guarded, and treats them as widows.  What had they done?	2 Samuel 15:16	David left the ten concubines to take care of the palace, but Absalom slept with them (2 Samuel 16:22).
10	From where was the widow who Elijah stayed with, performing miracles to resurrect her son and keep them fed?	1 Kings 17:10	Zarephath in the region of Sidon

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, for the first video, here is Casting Crowns singing Broken Together.  I did not find much on widows.  But I guess they need another verse to this song when one of the two who are broken together passes on.

Here is CeCe Winans singing I’ve Got Joy. We must focus on the positives.  There is time for grief, but we must still share God’s love.

And here is Celtic Women singing Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.

I have been a widower for about one year and five months when this comes out.  And I have a lot more joyful days now than sad days.  I know that my wife is in Heaven.  A lot of people add something to that: “playing bingo”, “Playing cards with those that went before”, whatever.  I don’t think those things are right.  I do not know what is right, but it will be so much better, we won’t worry about those things.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.