Orpah in the Bible — Hidden Meaning & Symbolism

Orpah. ôr'-pah (Heb.) -- pulled; plucked- mane; forelock; nape of the neck; poll; top; vertex; fawn; youthful freshness. A Moabitish woman, daughter-in-law of Naomi. She stayed in Moab instead of going with Naomi to Beth-lehem-judah as Ruth did (Ruth 1:4, 14). Meta. A youthfulness, grace, and activity (youthful freshness, fawn) in the natural soul (a woman always refers to some phase of the soul, or of the feminine element, in the individual); and zeal (nape of the neck, mane, poll), but more for the things of self than the things of spirit. Nape of the neck, mane, top, forelock, here also bespeak a lifting up in personal dignity and pride. This phase of the soul is too much in love with the outer man, the sense or carnal self, to give itself over to the real love for Spirit and Truth that would induce it to leave its native country (Moab) and accompany the higher aspects of the soul in its search for unity with God (go with Naomi back to her home, Beth-lehem-judah).