But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has 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.
- KJV And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath 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.
- 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. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me.
- Heb 12:11All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.
- Ps 88:15I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted.
- Ps 73:14For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.
- Lam 3:1–20I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
- Job 19:6know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net.
- Isa 38:13I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me.
- Job 5:17“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.
- Exod 6:3and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.
- Job 11:7“Can you fathom the mystery of God? Or can you probe the limits of the Almighty?
- Gen 43:14May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may release to you your other brother and Benjamin. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.”
- Gen 17:1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “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 who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
- Rev 21:22I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the 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.