And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very 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.
- BSB “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite 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 are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.
- Heb 12:11Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
- Ps 88:15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted.
- Ps 73:14For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
- Lam 3:1–20I AM the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- Job 19:6Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
- Isa 38:13I reckoned till morning, that, as a lion, so will he break all my bones: from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me.
- Job 5:17Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:
- Exod 6:3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
- Job 11:7Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
- Gen 43:14And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
- Gen 17:1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
- Rev 1:8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
- Rev 21:22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
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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.