NAOMI nā’ ō mĕ (נָעֳמִ֜י, LXX Νωεμίν, meaning my pleasantness or the like). The mother-in-law of Ruth.

Naomi is one of the major characters in the Book of Ruth, and at the beginning, at least, the narrative centers around her. Naomi and her husband, Elimelech the Bethlehemite, had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion (Ruth 1:1-3). When Naomi was widowed her sons married Moabite wives, namely Orpah and Ruth (v. 4). After ten years the two sons died, so Naomi and her two daughters-in-law left Moab for Elimelech’s native land of Judah since they understood that food was available there (vv. 5-7). Apparently on the way Naomi suggested that the two girls find security with their families rather than stay with her. Orpah took the advice of her mother-in-law, but Ruth responded with the famous words: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God; where you die I will die, and there will I be buried” (vv. 16, 17).

When Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, Naomi asked that her name be changed from Naomi, meaning “pleasantness,” to Mara, meaning “bitter,” “for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (v. 20). Naomi counseled Ruth to work for a near kinsman, Boaz, and seek his favor. Naomi arranged that when her inherited real estate would be sold Ruth should be included in the transaction (4:5). Since the nearest kinsman found that arrangement unsuitable, Boaz bought both the land and Ruth. Because Ruth bore Obed, the grandfather of King David, Naomi was mother-in-law to an ancestress of Jesus, the Messiah (4:17; cf. Matt 1:5). See Book of Ruth.

Bibliography Cf. Commentaries on Ruth.