Speaking of divorced women, surely there were divorced women in Bible days.

After all, did not several of the pharisees pop that question to Jesus?  "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" Matthew 19:3b.  Jesus, of course, who knows the rotten deceitfulness in the pharisees' - and mine and your - heart, shut their business down, starting with a "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh?"  Matthew 19:4-5

So evidently, back then, there were divorced women - but no county domestic relations offices, for these moms, left in a lurch, with no way to provide for their children - who were also dumped!  Yeah, yeah, i know, in patriarchal societies, the departing dad had automatic full custody of the kids.  But if his girlfriend didn't want them around...

Anyway, aside of Queen Vashti, cannot recall of any other divorced woman in the Bible.  So, the only thing i can gather is, the women and children left behind, were called "widows and orphans."  

Sounds like just one more, out of the many mercies the Lord bestows on women.  Seriously, even today, in our "enlightened" times, there is still reproach cast upon divorced woman - and certainly, more so in the past.  Cat-lady jibes and all - even if the only thing the wife did to "cause" the rift was having put on twenty pounds, after fifteen years, and three kids.   By the way, it's usually the wife who cooks the meals - even when she isn't hungry.   And we all know, the most effective way to get and keep control on weight is simply this : steer clear of the kitchen - period!

NO, this post is not about porking out, this is simply a fact of life - women usually put on a few pounds over the years.  Those 10 or 20 pounds, might be another form of the Lord's mercies.  As women age, our bones become weaker.  By the way, some padding around back can mean the difference between a sore can for two days (from slipping on the ice) and a cracked or broken tail bone.