Echoed across the Bible, prescriptions to not oppress widows or to care for them in particular ways make it plain that Biblical morality is incompatible with tossing widows aside (and also necessitates that the straw man idea that Christian doctrine regards non-virgin women as worthless or lower-tier people is false). It is not that widows have the moral right to receive care that is not really a human right or the right of all who are vulnerable (compare Deuteronomy 24:19-22, which already mentions people besides widows, with Leviticus 19:9-10, for instance). Female privilege of widows over widowers is not the philosophy of the Bible either, as I will touch on periodically. The real doctrine is that widows should not be neglected or taken advantage of in whatever grief or financial struggles they might face.
They should not be forced to stay at home against their will since they are not obligated to keep away from public interaction (compare with David's mistreatment of his concubines in 2 Samuel 20:3), for all people have the right to do as they please without opposition or confinement as long as they do not sin (Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32). They should not be burned or conditioned to want to burn alive after their husbands' deaths as with the alleged historical practice of widow burning in Hindu communities. Soon, we will shift to a focus on the particulars of Mosaic Law and the ramifications for widows, but I will include an excerpt from Deuteronomy in the following verses about Yahweh's attitude towards widows:
Deuteronomy 10:17-18--"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner among you, giving them food and clothing."
Psalm 68:5--"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling."
Malachi 3:5--"'So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,' says the Lord Almighty."
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."
In accordance with what sin ultimately deserves (Romans 6:23, 2 Peter 2:6, Revelation 20:15), God promises eventual death to those who would oppress widows (Exodus 22:22-24), should they not repent of their sin (Ezekiel 18:21-23, 33:14-16, Isaiah 55:7). This would have in the context of ancient Israel most likely been an allusion to killings in the period leading up to the Babylonian exile, as God says he would allow or bring about (depending on the event) a series of curses on the Israelites for disregarding morality, the latter of which Yahweh reveals to them in great depth across the Torah as the objective, universal obligations for all humankind--as if this is not logically entailed by something actually being objectively good and obligatory, passages like Leviticus 20:22-24, Deuteronomy 4:5-8, and 18:9-13 clearly teach moral universality. Otherwise, the threat of killing oppressors is a foreshadowing of the eschatological destruction of the wicked in hell (Matthew 10:28), leaving only the righteous to live forever (John 3:16, Revelation 21:6-8). Below is the passage in which God threatens to extinguish the lives of those who mistreat widows:
Exodus 22:22-24--"'Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.'"
Many might balk at the charge that they oppress widows, not that self-identifying Christians or religious Jews tend to be correct on the level of worldview or practice when it comes to either logical necessities about the concept of morality (such as that cultural or individualistic relativism is logically impossible, though moral nihilism could be true) or the details of Biblical moral doctrines. Even so, plenty of the same pseudo-Christians might encourage the invalid, sexist stereotypes that make it so hard for widows to enter or reenter the work force when they were conditioned before and inside marriage to accept financially relying on their husbands simply because they are men. They probably think it is an unfortunate but legitimate thing to make widows or single mothers (or single fathers), whose vulnerability can be similar to that of widows, work for poverty wages on top of caring for themselves and their children.
The Bible, the enormously misunderstood Torah included, never truly prescribes the sexist or economic oppression of/discrimination against anyone, man or woman. Indeed, beyond specifically saying to leave agricultural yield at harvest time for widows to take and eat from (Deuteronomy 24:17-22; also Leviticus 19:9-10 and 23:22 by extension), there is the permissibility of anyone (rich or poor) casually eating from any neighbor's field, vineyard, or orchard (Deuteronomy 23:24-25). An employed or unemployed widow is morally entitled to freely eat like anyone else from another person's land from day to day, given that they do not put a sickle to standing grain or carry away the likes of grapes in a basket instead of just eating right then and there.
This is not theft by Biblical standards; it is the landowner who withholds resources from the public that steals from others such as widows in need! It is likewise theft to deprive potentially vulnerable people like widows of the prescribed tithe meals no more than every three years apart (Deuteronomy 14:28-29), with additional generosity being generally required of those who are secure enough to give (Deuteronomy 15:1-11). Widows are among those listed as the recipients of this mandatory tithe generosity. Yes, it cannot be obligatory to give food tithes to the Levites when there is no active priesthood because it is logically impossible to be required to do something one cannot do, but the rest of this command is universally applicable on actual Judeo-Christianity:
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."
Yahweh's Mosaic Law also specifically codifies a way that a widow can support herself or find provision if needed. There is always the option of becoming a Biblical servant/slave with all of its own significant protections like mandatory emancipation for abuse (Exodus 21:26-27), one day of rest a week (Exodus 20:8-11, 23:12, 5:12-15), a maximum of six full years of service with the exception of voluntary agreement (Exodus 21:2-6, Deuteronomy 15:12-18; Exodus 22:21, Leviticus 19:33-34), and freedom to flee from an abusive master or mistress without being returned (Deuteronomy 23:15-16). Both widows and servants are included in Biblical holiday celebrations (Deuteronomy 16:9-15), so of course widows who are servants are included, in addition to being a main partaker of the tithe feasts every three years. Upon going free if she chooses not to become a lifelong servant because the arrangement is so materially prosperous for her, the widow, like any other male or female slave, would still receive the resources to become materially independent, and she is to be joyfully included in the annual celebrations before Yahweh either way:
Deuteronomy 15:12-14--"If any of your people--Hebrew men or women--sell themselves to you and serve you six years, in the seventh year you must let them go free. And when you release them, do not send them away empty-handed. Supply them liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to them as the Lord your God has blessed you."
Deuteronomy 16:9-12--"Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as the dwelling for his Name--you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees."
There is nothing about this opportunity that restricts it to non-widowed women (or non-widowers), and note that it absolutely commands that female servants, upon reaching the end of their term or going free prematurely for abuse as prescribed in Exodus 21:26-27, receive abundant resources like animals and food. The Bible certainly never condemns women owning their own property and in the case of Deuteronomy 15 explicitly demands it. Again, widows are not an exception, though only certain passages mention the moral obligations towards or rights of widows. It is not that they should be cared for simply because they are women, as if widowers or other vulnerable men are lesser or deserve to suffer their way to self-sufficiency moreso because they involuntarily inhabit a male body. Neither is it that factors leading to the vulnerability of widows as women in various cultures, a vulnerability which logically can be diminished by personal/societal action like the kinds called for by Mosaic Law, are prescribed so that widows are kept in a state of dependence on men or on other people in general.
Yes, supporting widows and others who have suffered loss of a loved one (hopefully a loved one rather than a distant spouse!) might be regarded as positive by many who call themselves Christians, but few take the Biblical commands to not oppress them as seriously as their nature would call for or bother realizing what does and does not follow from them. Oppressing widows is not limited to blatantly extreme examples like involuntary widow burning. Making widows or anyone else in a precarious financial situation work without receiving the day's wages before sunset (Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15) is oppression; pressuring married women to forgo their own careers and financial independence on the basis of gender sets them up for potential disaster later on.
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