A famine sends Elimelech and his wife Naomi from Bethlehem to the country of Moab, together with their two sons. There he dies, and Naomi is left with her sons and then, after their deaths too, with her daughter-in-law Ruth. His name keeps returning in the story long afterward. Boaz, a relative of the family, is introduced as “of the family of Elimelech,” and at the city gate he declares before the elders that he has bought “all that was Elimelech’s.” Through that purchase, the old family line carries on. Read Ruth 1 first, then chapter 4.
6 verses
And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.
And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's:
And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
God his king, a man of the tribe of Judah, of the family of the Hezronites, and kinsman of Boaz, who dwelt in Bethlehem in the days of the judges. In consequence of a great dearth he, with his wife Naomi and his two sons, went to dwell in the land of Moab. There he and his sons died (Ruth 1:2,3; 2:1,3; 4:3,9). Naomi afterwards returned to Palestine with her daughter Ruth.
William Smith, 1884
(my God is king), a man of the tribe of Judah and of the family of the Hezronites, who dwelt in Bethlehem-Ephratah in the days of the Judges. (B.C. 1312.) In consequence of a great death in the land he went with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to dwell in Moab, where he and his sons died without posterity. (Ruth 1:2,3) etc.