Ruth 1:4 tells us that the two sons of Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion, married Moabite women, and that the two couples lived in Moab for about ten years. The verse names those women, Orpah and Ruth, and sets the stage for the story that follows. It is a short, factual sentence, but it marks the point where Naomi’s family begins to unravel and where a foreign daughter-in-law becomes central to the book.
They took for themselves wives of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. They lived there about ten years.
Ruth 1:4 (WEB)
What Ruth 1:4 Means
The verse begins with “They took for themselves wives of the women of Moab.” The “they” refers to Mahlon and Chilion, the two sons of Naomi, who had moved with their parents from Bethlehem to the country of Moab because of a famine. Marrying local women was a normal part of settling in a new place, and the verse reports it plainly, without judgment or praise. The writer is describing what happened, not telling us whether it was wise.
Next the verse gives the two wives’ names, Orpah and Ruth. Naming them matters in a book where names carry weight. Each woman will make a different choice in the chapter that follows, and the narrator wants us to know exactly who they are. The final phrase, “They lived there about ten years,” tells us the sons’ marriages lasted a long time. That length of time is important, because it shows the family had roots in Moab before the tragedies began.
What the verse does not promise is anything about the future. It does not say the marriages were happy or that they were approved by God. The text simply records the facts and leaves the moral weight for the reader to notice in the events that come after.
The Context of Ruth 1:4
The book of Ruth is a short narrative set “in the days when the judges judged,” a period described in the book of Judges as unsettled and often troubled. Tradition credits the book to an unnamed author, and it was likely written to tell a family story that also showed God’s faithfulness to the house of David, since Ruth is later named as an ancestor of King David. Its first readers would have understood the setting and the land of Moab, a neighboring nation that Israel had a complicated history with.
Just before Ruth 1:4, verses 1 through 3 describe a famine that drives Elimelech, Naomi, and their sons out of Bethlehem, followed by Elimelech’s death. Right after the verse, in verse 5, both sons die, leaving Naomi with no husband and no sons. Read alone, Ruth 1:4 might seem like a small detail. Read in that sequence, it becomes the quiet middle of a family’s loss, and it explains why Naomi later decides to return home with her daughters-in-law.
Key Phrases in Ruth 1:4
Ruth 1:16
Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
(WEB)
This verse comes shortly after the events of Ruth 1:4, when Ruth refuses to leave Naomi. It shows the depth of loyalty that grows out of the years the women shared in Moab, and it reveals why Ruth stands apart from Orpah.
Ruth 4:13
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son.
(WEB)
This verse brings the story to a close with a marriage and a child. It shows how the long road from the marriages in Moab leads to restoration, so the reader can see that the sorrow recorded in Ruth 1:4 does not have the final word.
A Short Prayer From Ruth 1:4
Lord, you see the families we build and the places we end up living, sometimes by choice and sometimes by hardship. Thank you that you were at work in the years Naomi’s family spent in Moab, even when they could not see where things were going. Help me to trust your faithfulness in the seasons I cannot fully understand, and to love the people you have given me with patience and openness. Keep my heart steady when life takes me somewhere unfamiliar. Amen.
