Despite the woman's insistence, the judge continues to refuse to hear her complaints. Yet the widow persists. She knows she is within her rights and that the judge is obligated to hear her case. Finally, the judge relents. It is revealing that he says of himself that he has no fear of God and is unconcerned with people. But that woman is a burden to him. Who knows what she might do to him? The Greek word hypopiazei that Jesus uses here literally means to strike in the face
and thereby to give a black eye.
He does not want to think about what she might do. Therefore, it is best for his own interests to listen to that annoying and endlessly persistent widow and to give her justice. It shows that even a very weak voice, when it is tenacious, can finally have an effect.
4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man,