Orpah
Or'pah (Heb. Orpah', עָרפָּה , supposed to be transposed for עָפרָה, a gazelle; Sept. Ο᾿ρφά), a Moabitish woman, wife of Chilion, son of Naomi, and thereby sister-in-law to Ruth. B.C. cir. 1360. On the death of their husbands Orpah accompanied her sister-in-law and her mother-in-law on the road to Bethlehem. But here her resolution failed her. The offer which Naomi made to the two younger women that they should return "each to her own mother's house," after a slight hesitation, she embraced. "Orpah kissed her mother-in-law," and went back "to her people and to her gods," leaving to the unconscious Ruth the glory, which she might have rivalled, of being the mother of the most illustrious house of that or any nation (Ru 1:4,14). SEE RUTH.
