Exodus 22:24

22:24 and my anger will burn and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives will be widows and your children will be fatherless. ¹ 

Jeremiah 18:21

18:21 So let their children die of starvation.

Let them be cut down by the sword. ² 

Let their wives lose their husbands and children.

Let the older men die of disease ³ 

and the younger men die by the sword in battle.

Lamentations 5:3

5:3 We have become fatherless orphans;

our mothers have become widows.

[22:24]  ¹ sn The punishment will follow the form of talionic justice, an eye for an eye, in which the punishment matches the crime. God will use invading armies (“sword” is a metonymy of adjunct here) to destroy them, making their wives widows and their children orphans.

[18:21]  ² tn Heb “be poured out to the hand [= power] of the sword.” For this same expression see Ezek 35:5; Ps 63:10 (63:11 HT). Comparison with those two passages show that it involved death by violent means, perhaps death in battle.

[18:21]  ³ tn Heb “be slain by death.” The commentaries are generally agreed that this refers to death by disease or plague as in 15:2. Hence, the reference is to the deadly trio of sword, starvation, and disease which were often connected with war. See the notes on 15:2.