Naomi
1190 BCE · Biblical · Beit Lechem (Bethlehem)
Naomi is a central figure of the Book of Ruth. In a time of famine during the period of the judges, she left Beit Lechem in Judah with her husband Elimelech and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, to live in the country of Moab (Ruth 1:1-2). There her husband died, her sons married the Moabite women Orpah and Ruth, and after about ten years both sons died too (Ruth 1:3-5). Hearing that the famine had ended, she set out for home and urged her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers' houses. Orpah went back, but Ruth refused to leave her (Ruth 1:8-18). Back in Beit Lechem at the start of the barley harvest, Naomi told the townswomen to call her not Naomi, 'pleasantness', but Mara, 'bitterness' (Ruth 1:19-22). It was Naomi who recognised Boaz as a redeeming kinsman. She sent Ruth to him at the threshing floor (Ruth 2:20; 3:1-4). When Ruth bore Oved, the neighbours declared, 'A son is born to Naomi!', and Naomi became his nurse (Ruth 4:14-17).
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Beit Lechem (Bethlehem)בית לחם
What they did here
Wife of Elimelech, 'Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah' (Ruth 1:1-2).
About Beit Lechem (Bethlehem)
Beit Lechem (Bethlehem), a town in the Judean Hills south of Jerusalem, appears throughout the Tanach. According to the Torah, the matriarch Rachel died and was buried on the road to Bethlehem; it was the setting of the Book of Ruth, and the Book of Samuel records it as the home and birthplace of King David.
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Naomi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Works
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