How many times is fatherless mentioned in the Bible?
The word fatherless appears 43 times in the King James Version, in 43 verses. It is found in 13 of the 66 books. The World English Bible uses fatherless 43 times.
Fatherless in the King James Version and the World English Bible
Each form of fatherless counted in each translation.
| Form | KJV | WEB |
|---|---|---|
| fatherless | 43 | 43 |
| Total | 43 | 43 |
First and last mention of fatherless
Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Verses with fatherless on our topic pages
20 verses that use fatherless in the World English Bible are in our topic collections.
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
On: Loneliness, Orphans, Widows, Worship
Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”
to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.
“Defend the weak, the poor, and the fatherless. Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.
if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, and don’t walk after other gods to your own hurt;
Yahweh says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
The Levite, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you, and the foreigner living among you, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.
On: Orphans
Because I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless also, who had no one to help him,
On: Orphans
But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.
On: Orphans
Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. Let your widows trust in me.”
On: Orphans
Common questions
How many times is fatherless in the Old Testament and the New Testament?
In the King James Version, counting every form, 42 of the 43 uses are in the Old Testament and 1 in the New Testament. Fatherless appears in 13 books of the 66 in the King James Version. Deuteronomy has the most (11), then Psalms (8) and Job (7).
Where is fatherless first mentioned in the Bible?
The first use in the King James Version is Exodus 22:22: "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child." The last is James 1:27.
Read the full collection: Bible Verses About Orphans (19 Verses).
More word counts: widow, father, bird, daughter, treasure, evil, world, beloved, or all 680 words.
Counted by Bible Says About from the full public-domain text of the King James Version (1769 edition) and the World English Bible. Verse text only: headings and psalm titles are left out. A word is a run of letters: a hyphenated name like Beer-sheba counts as two, and an apostrophe stays inside its word (LORD'S is one). Matching ignores capital letters. Data compiled 2026-10-26.