Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons.
Parallel translations
- WEB Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
- KJV And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
- BSB Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons,
- NASB Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
- NLT Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Elimelech dies, leaving Naomi a widow with only her two sons. The first of several losses begins Naomi's descent into emptiness.
Overview
The death of the household's head leaves Naomi vulnerable in a foreign land. In Israel's social order a woman's security came largely through husband and sons, so this loss is grave. The narrator records it without explanation, inviting the reader to trust that God remains at work even when life is marked by grief and apparent abandonment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Ps 34:19Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.
- 2 Kgs 4:1Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead. You know that your servant feared Yahweh. Now the creditor has come to take for himself my two children to be slaves.”
- Heb 12:6For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.”
- Heb 12:10–11For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Boaz the kinsman-redeemer who buys back the destitute and takes a bride foreshadows Christ, our Redeemer who pays the price to make a people his own; and from Ruth's line comes David, and David's greater Son.
How Ruth 1:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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