21:2

and He saw a poor widow: This clause introduces a woman who contrasts with the rich people in 21:1. She was poor and also a widow. In that culture, widows often did not have enough money to live on, but she was bringing an offering to God. Introduce her in a natural way in your language. For example:

Then he saw a poor woman. She was a widow.
-or-
Then he noticed a poor widow coming to give an offering.

poor: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as poor here refers to someone who is in need of basic necessities. The widow’s need is also clear from 21:4. Most English versions translate the word as poor or “very poor.”

widow: The word widow or “widows” also occurred in 18:3 and 20:47. See how you translated it there.

two small copper coins: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as small copper coins refers to the smallest coin that people used at that time. Some ways to translate it are:

• Use the name of the least valuable coin known in your culture. For example:

two pennies (Contemporary English Version)

• Use a descriptive phrase. For example:

two small/tiny coins
-or-
two coins which had very little/low value

• Use a general term that refers to a very small amount of money. For example:

a tiny bit of money

© 2009, 2010, 2013 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.