Elimelech and Naomi have left the land with their two sons, just as Israel was no longer allowed to live there after they rejected the Messiah. The famine in the land is a result of the unbelief of the Jewish people. They migrate abroad, where they experience great suffering.
Ruth 1
3 Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left, she and her two sons.
4 They took for themselves wives from Moab. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
5 Mahlon and Chilion also both died, and the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.
the kingdom taken away
Elimelech dies. His name means “my God is king.” The kingdom would be taken away from Israel and given to another people. Mahlon (weakness, illness, affliction) and Chilion (to waste away) also die. Their names refer to the suffering that would befall Israel in the Diaspora.
A stubborn people
Orpah is usually translated as stubborn. Israel is frequently called a stubborn people in the Tanakh (Exodus 32:9; 33:3,5; 34:9; Deuteronomy 9:6,13). And Paul calls them a stubborn and contentious people (Romans 10:21). Ruth means companion, a name she later lives up to by accompanying Naomi to the Jewish land.
Ten
We read again that they stayed abroad for about ten years. The number ten speaks of God’s words. Just as we find ten words of creation in Genesis 1: and God said…
And of course, the Ten Commandments in the Law, in Exodus 20, where God also spoke ten times. The old covenant was a marriage covenant. Because of Israel’s unfaithfulness, this covenant was broken, and since then she has been without her husband (Isaiah 54:5; 62:4; Hosea 2:6) and in the Diaspora.
Yod
The letter yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It means hand. Israel is scattered among the nations, in unbelief. It is God who has a hand in this (Romans 9:18; 11:8,32). But it is also His hand that preserves the people to bring them back to the land in the future. Naomi and Ruth, as types of Israel, will return to the land and there they will meet their Husband and Redeemer.