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1Ti_5:5 defines more precisely what widows the apostle specially exhorts Timothy to “honour.”
ἡ δὲ ὄντως χήρα καὶ μεμονωμένη ] καὶ μεμονωμένη is an epexegetical addition, defining ἡ ὄντως χήρα as one with no relatives who take care of her, or of whom she takes care.
ἤλπικεν ἐπὶ τὸν Θεόν ] The distinction between ἐλπικέναι ἐπί with the dative (1Ti_4:10) and ἐλπικ . ἐπί with accusative, is that in the former case the object furnishes the ground on which the hope rests; in the latter, the goal towards which it is directed.
καὶ προσμένει (strengthened form of μένει ; τῇ προσευχῇ προσκαρτερεῖν , Rom_12:12; Col_4:2) ταῖς δεήσεσι κ . ταῖς προσευχαῖς (comp. 1Ti_2:1) νυκτὸς κ . ἡμέρας (1Th_2:9). With this we may compare what Luke (Luk_2:37) says of Anna the prophetess. Jerome (Ep. ad Gerontiam): quibus deus spes est, et omne opus oratio. Matthies rightly remarks: “The idea of the genuine widow is explained not abstractly, but in concrete form, in actual realization, for which reason we have the indicative used instead of the imperative or optative, as if a single representative of the whole class were described in living, personal form.” Hofmann will not allow this natural explanation to stand, because “the predicate which names a moral behaviour does not accord with a subject denoting an outward state.” Taking ἣ δέ as a relative pronoun, he connects it with ἤλπικεν ἐπὶ Θ ., and regards καὶ προσμενεῖ (for προσμένει ) as the apodosis, ὄντως χήρα καὶ μεμονωμένη forming an affix to ἣ δέ . Apart from the objection that the meaning advanced by Hofmann would have been expressed much more naturally by ἡ δὲ ὄντως χήρα κ . μεμ ., ἣ ἤλπικεν ἐπὶ Θεὸν , καὶ προσμενεῖ , the meaning would be far from appropriate here. Besides, it gives no characteristic mark of the widow, for the hope which results in continual prayer is not peculiar to widows. Hofmann in his polemics does not observe that, in the apostle’s presupposition, she whose outward condition is more definitely described is a believing widow. When this is observed, we cannot deny the appropriateness of the reference (in Wiesinger) to 1Co_7:32 ff.