Literally the text says “Any widow and orphan you [plural] shall not humiliate.” The basic meaning of the verb is to be bent down, or to be pitiful. It therefore has a similar meaning to the verbs in verse 21. Various translations are possible: “abuse” (New Revised Standard Version), “ill-treat” (New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh), “take advantage of” (New International Version), and “mistreat” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version).

The widow, of course, was a woman whose husband had died. In the Israelite society she had no right to own property and was often dependent on public charity. The orphan was really a “fatherless child” (Revised English Bible), not necessarily a child who had lost both parents. So the word meant “a child without a father.” In many languages, however, the term for orphan refers to a child who has lost both parents. In such a case it is better to refer in this context to a “fatherless child.”

Quoted with permission from Osborn, Noel D. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Exodus. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1999. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .