“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me.
Parallel translations
- WEB She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- KJV And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
- NKJV But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- NASB But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- NLT “Don’t call me Naomi,” she responded. “Instead, call me Mara, for the Almighty has made life very bitter for me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Naomi asks to be called Mara ('bitter') instead of Naomi ('pleasant'), saying the Almighty has dealt bitterly with her. Her lament names God as sovereign over her suffering.
Overview
Renaming herself 'Bitter,' Naomi voices raw grief yet still confesses God's sovereignty, calling Him Shaddai, the Almighty. Her honesty models lament that does not abandon faith. The reader, knowing the harvest has just begun and a kinsman named Boaz waits ahead, sees that her bitterness is not God's final word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Job 6:4For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Heb 12:11No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.
- Ps 88:15From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Ps 73:14For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.
- Lam 3:1–20I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath.
- Job 19:6then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.
- Isa 38:13I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.
- Job 5:17Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
- Exod 6:3I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself known to them.
- Job 11:7Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?
- Gen 43:14May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”
- Gen 17:1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.
- Rev 1:8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.
- Rev 21:22But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
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Christ at the center
Boaz the kinsman-redeemer who buys back the destitute and takes a bride foreshadows Christ, our Redeemer who pays the price to make a people his own; and from Ruth's line comes David, and David's greater Son.
How Ruth 1:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.