Orpah and Naomi (wasRE: Aging and the Elderly)
Jonathan D. Safren
yonsaf at beitberl.ac.il
Wed Jul 5 02:39:38 EDT 2000
Whenever depicting the characters in the Book of Ruth, one should not
forget to take account of the symbolism of the names:
Orpah, one who turned the back of her neck, i.e., her back.
Ruth -re'uth with elision of the guttural - friendship.
Similarly, their husbands:
Mahlon, from mahalah -"illness"
Kilyon. from kelayah - "destruction, ruin"
--
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel
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