Orpah

Hendrik Goltzius

, 1576.

Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld

Orpah (

wished to go to Judea with Naomi. However, Naomi tried to persuade both Ruth and Orpah to return to their people and to their gods. Ruth chose to remain with Naomi, but Orpah chose to return to her people and her gods. (Ruth i. 4 et seq.).

In rabbinic literature, the treatment of Orpah is almost entirely negative.^[2] Orpah is identified with Harapha, the mother of the four Philistine giants (2 Samuel 21:16), one of whom was Goliath. These four sons were said to have been given her for the four tears which she shed at parting with her mother-in-law (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 42b). The name Harapha stems from the word for threshing; she allowed herself to be "threshed" by many men, as one would thresh wheat (Babylonian Talmud, Sotah 42b).^[3]

The

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