Mahlon
“Sickly or invalid”
Summary
Mahlon was the elder son of Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem and the first husband of Ruth the Moabitess, who died childless in Moab.
☩Life in Moab
When famine struck Judah, Elimelech took his wife Naomi and two sons Mahlon and Chilion from Bethlehem to sojourn in the land of Moab. After Elimelech died, both sons married Moabite women—Mahlon married Ruth, and Chilion married Orpah. After about ten years in Moab, both Mahlon and Chilion died without producing children. The Targum interprets their childless deaths as divine judgment for their transgression of the law in marrying Moabite women.
☩Legacy Through Ruth
Though Mahlon died childless, his memory was preserved through Ruth's subsequent marriage to Boaz. When Boaz publicly announced his intention to marry Ruth, he declared that he was doing so 'to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren.' The son born to Ruth and Boaz, named Obed, was legally reckoned as Mahlon's heir, though biologically Boaz's son, and through this line came David and ultimately Jesus Christ.
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Mahlon," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. V (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Mahlon," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. III (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).
- 3.Andrew Robert Fausset, "Mahlon," in The Englishman's Critical and Expository Bible Cyclopædia (Hodder & Stoughton, 1878).
- 4.George Morrish, "Mahlon," in Morrish's Concise Bible Dictionary (George Morrish, 1898).