Please explain why the Scriptures refer to the special care of God over the fatherless and the widow and says nothing about the widower and the motherless? It seems to me that where the wife and mother is taken away it is much sadder than where the husband and father is removed from the family circle.

In many places in the Scriptures the expression “fatherless,” in the original language in which the Bible was written, has the significance of bereaved or orphans. The thought is that the Lord’s special care and compassion are over the weak, helpless and the bereaved ones, and not that He has less consideration for the motherless than for the fatherless. We read “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works. The Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous, and preserveth the stranger; He relieveth the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked He turneth upside down” (Psalms 145:9,10; 146:8,9). Again, we read, “a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17). All those who are mourning and sorrowful, who will draw nigh unto God through Christ, will be comforted whether they are motherless or fatherless; widowers or widows.