Chapter 18

1Christian people who have no children ought to educate orphans, whether young men or virgins, adopt them as their own children, and love them all the more. If anyone has a son who has reached the proper age, let the son marry an orphaned virgin. If you do this, you will accomplish a great work, become fathers of orphans, and receive a reward from the Lord God for the service you have performed.

2But if anyone is proud, despises the orphan, and says, “I will not marry a poor woman,” let him understand who is the father of the orphan and the protector of the widow. Whoever intends to act in this way will scatter his wealth to another and fulfill in himself what Scripture says: “What the saints have not eaten, the Syrians shall eat.” Likewise Isaiah says, “A foreign enemy shall devour your land in your sight.”