Naomi
A woman of Bethlehem who lost her husband and both sons in Moab and came home with her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth. She guided Ruth towards marriage with Boaz and nursed their son Obed.
Naomi left Bethlehem for Moab with her husband Elimelech and their two sons during a famine, and there she lost all three (Ruth 1:1–5). When she came back with Ruth, she told the women of the town, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:19–21).
She recognised Boaz as one of the family’s near kinsmen and sent Ruth to him at the threshing floor (Ruth 2:20) (Ruth 3:1–4). When Ruth’s son Obed was born, the women said, “A son is born to Naomi”, and she became the child’s nurse (Ruth 4:14–17).
In the timeline
- about 1100 BC, traditional dateRuth and Boaz
A Moabite widow follows her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem, gleans in the fields of Boaz and marries him. Their son Obed is the grandfather of David, and Matthew names Ruth in the genealogy of Jesus.