Ruth 1:2
“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 Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The family is named: Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons Mahlon and Chilion, who settle in Moab.
What Does Ruth 1:2 Mean?
Now the family receives names, and in Hebrew storytelling names carry weight. Elimelech means my God is king, a confession of faith even as he leaves the land of that God. Naomi means pleasant or sweet. The sons bear heavier names, Mahlon and Chilion, sounding like sickness and wasting, a quiet foreshadowing of grief to come. They are Ephrathites, an old and honorable Bethlehem clan.
What was meant to be a brief stay becomes settled life: they continued there. A temporary refuge slowly turns into a home far from the covenant land. The text does not scold them, but it lets the reader feel the drift, how survival can gradually pull a family away from where they belong. Even so, God is not absent in Moab. He is already weaving this household into a plan larger than they could see, where a foreign land becomes the unlikely soil from which redemption will one day grow.