Ruth 1:4

took them wives The idiom is a late one, 2 Chronicles 11:21; Ezra 9:2; Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 13:25 etc.; see Introd. p. xv. It is uncertain whether the names of the two wives have any bearing upon the parts which they play in the story. The Midrash Rabbah on this Book explains that Orpahwas so called -because she turned her neck(-oreph) on her mother in law"; possibly the name may=-obstinacy" (cf. stiffnecked, Exodus 32:9 etc.). Equally doubtful is the significance of Ruth; if the name is shortened from re-uth, as it is written in Syriac, it will be the fem. of Re'u(Genesis 11:18 ff.), and may mean -friendship." We cannot, therefore, feel sure that the writer invented the names; he may have derived them from tradition.