Elimelech

ELIMELECH, of the City of Bethlehem, and husband to Naomi, of whom he had two sons Mahlon and Chelion. There being a great famine in the land, Elimelech was obliged to retire with his wife and children to the land of Moab, where he died at ten years end, as did also Mahlon and Chelion, whom he had married to two Moabitish women, named Orpah and Ruth, of whom we shall speak under their proper Author. Tradit. Hebr. in Paralip. Lyran. Tost. Hebr. 1 Chron. iv. 22.Articles.

The Hebrews explain what is said in the Chronicles as relating to Elimelech; And Jokim, and the men of Choreba, and Joash, who married in Moab, and dwelt at Lehem¹. Which St. Jerom has expressed after this manner in the Vulgate, Qui stare fecit solem, virique mendacii, & securus & incendens, qui principes fuerunt in Moab, & qui reversi sunt in Lehem. Jokim is Elimelech. His name signifies, He hath put a stop to. And the Hebrews relate, that Jokim observing his country-men, the inhabitants of Beth-lehem, to be plunged in great disorders, endeavoured to reform them by his remonstrances and miracles. He stop’d the course of the sun, as Joshua had done before him; but this prodigy producing no good effect upon the Bethlemites, he foretold that a remarkable famine would happen; which did so accordingly, and obliged him to retire into the land of Moab, with his two sons, called, as they say, in the Chronicles, The men of lyes, because they had no children. There they married and dwelt at Bethlehem; not they themselves in person, for they died among the Moabites, but in the persons of Naomi their mother, and Ruth her daughter-in-law, who there married Booz, by whom she had Obed, David’s grandfather. But these are particulars, which we set down as so many Rabbinical Fables.

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