portentous. Elimelech appears to be a sentence name meaning either “My God is king” or “El is Milku,”5 expressing the faith of the one who gave and/or bore the name. Elimelech’s departure for Moab may reflect his own doubts about the truth his name declared. Naomi is mentioned secondarily to her husband, but she will turn out to be the key character in this chapter. As the explanation in vv. 20–21 suggests, her name derives from a root, nʿm, “to be pleasant.” This may be an abbreviated name, missing