ORPAH
(Orʹpah).
The Moabite wife of Chilion, and like Ruth, a daughter-in-law of Naomi. (Compare Ru 1:3-5 with 4:10.) After the husbands of all three died, the childless widows, Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth, began the journey from Moab to Bethlehem. At a certain point Naomi urged her two daughters-in-law to go back to their mothers’ homes and marry in Moab, but they both kept saying to Naomi, “No, but with you we shall return to your people.” Orpah had dealt kindly with her mother-in-law, for whom she evidently felt considerable affection. (Ru 1:8-10) Her inclination to continue on with Naomi may have been in part the result of having enjoyed life in an Israelite family. But Naomi now stressed the strong probability that for these two Moabite widows to continue with her might mean a life of widowhood in Judah, inasmuch as Naomi had little hope of remarrying so as to bring forth sons, and even should this happen, she was sure that Orpah and Ruth would not want to wait until such sons matured so that they might perform levirate marriage toward these Moabite widows. Orpah’s affection and appreciation were not enough to keep her going along in the face of such a possible future, and after much weeping, she bade farewell to Naomi and Ruth and returned “to her people and her gods.”—Ru 1:3-15.