Orpah

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Orpah is a woman mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. She was from Moab and was the daughter-in-law of Naomi and wife of Mahlon. After the death of her husband, Orpah and her sister-in-law Ruth wished to go to Judea with Naomi. However, Naomi persuaded Orpah to return to her people and to her gods (Ruth i. 4 et seq.).

In rabbinic literature, Orpah is identified with Harafa, the mother of the four Philistine giants; and 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).

According to legend, she had relations with 100 men before conceiving each of the four giants. She was called Orpah from the word Oreph, or back of the neck- a reference to the many men who sodomized her. Her other name Harafa is cognate of the word for Threshing; that she allowed herself to be 'threshed' by many men as one would thresh wheat.

According to a legend in a midrash, Orpah was a sister of Ruth, and both were daughters of the Moabite king Eglon (Ruth R. ii. 9). Her name was changed to “Orpah” because she turned her back on her mother-in-law (ib.; comp. Talmud Sotah l.c.) One source in the Talmud states that she was killed by King David's general Abishai, the son of Zeruiah (Sanhedrin 95a).