Verse Lens · Context pointer
Ruth 1:4 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 4. 4And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
This verse names Ruth and Orpah as Moabite wives and marks the household's roughly ten-year stay.
Read It With
- Ruth 1:1–5
Read Ruth 1:1–5 together. This verse names Ruth and Orpah as Moabite wives and marks the household's roughly ten-year stay. Read Ruth 1:1–5 as one complete scene: A Bethlehem household crosses into Moab during famine; the sons marry Ruth and Orpah, and after about ten years Naomi is left without husband or sons.
Why It Needs Context
This line performs one step inside Ruth 1:1–5; isolating it would detach that step from the scene's vulnerability, agency, and outcome. Specifically, this verse names Ruth and Orpah as Moabite wives and marks the household's roughly ten-year stay.
Read Ruth 1:1–5 together
Why these verses belong together: Famine, migration, marriages, and three deaths create one opening household-loss sequence.
Verse 1. 1 Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
Verse 2. 2 And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
Verse 3. 3 And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
Verse 4. 4 And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.
Verse 5. 5 And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Ruth 1:1–5 — Famine, Migration, and a Household EmptiedSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The narrator does not explicitly approve or condemn the marriages.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Ruth 1:1–5, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ruth
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ruth.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:1–5
Open source ↗