Hebrew word · H6204
עׇרְפָּה
'arepah
Orpah
A personal name of uncertain meaning. Proposals include a link with ʿōrep̄, 'back of the neck', or derivations meaning 'cloud' or 'thick hair'. None is secure.
Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A woman of the Moabites living before Israel's Monarchy, first mentioned at Rut.1.4; married to Chilion (H3630)
§ Orpah = "gazelle"
a Moabite woman, wife of Chilion, the son of Naomi, and sister-in- law of Ruth
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A personal name of uncertain meaning. Proposals include a link with ʿōrep̄, 'back of the neck', or derivations meaning 'cloud' or 'thick hair'. None is secure.
- Against the English
English simply transliterates the name.
- How it drifted
Later Jewish interpretation played on ʿōrep̄, 'neck/back': Orpah is 'the one who turned her back' (Ruth Rabbah). This wordplay comes from later readers. The book itself never comments on the name.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Rabbinic legend made Orpah the ancestress of Goliath (b. Sotah 42b; Ruth Rabbah 2), rewarding or punishing her tears and kiss. These are imaginative expansions from centuries later.
Where it appears
Ruth · 2
-
Ruth 1:4 עָרְפָּ֔ה [was] Orpah
who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years,
-
Ruth 1:14 עָרְפָּה֙ Orpah
Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
Here: The name of the elder son Chilion's widow (cf. 4:10), a Moabite. She is named here for the last time in the Bible. The meaning of the name is uncertain.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.