probable that Mahlon died shortly after marrying Ruth. Otherwise they would probably have had some children, since family planning was largely unknown in the ancient world. Marriage usually occurred soon after puberty and it is probable that no great time elapsed between the death of Ruth’s husband and her migration to Israel (the ten years of 1:4 probably refers to the family’s stay in Moab rather than the length of the marriages). Ruth was, therefore, probably only in her middle or late teens when