Naomi
b. c. 1190 BCE · Biblical era · Beit Lechem (Bethlehem)
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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.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Naomi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.
Jewish world
- Pinchas ben Elazar HaKohen· 1280 BCE–1180 BCE
- Devorah (the Judge-Prophetess)· 1200 BCE–1124 BCE
- Barak ben Avinoam· b. 1160 BCE
- Yael eshet Chever HaKeini (Jael)· b. 1160 BCE
- Gidon ben Yoash (Gideon)· d. 1100 BCE
- Ehud ben Gera (the left-handed Judge)· d. 1150 BCE
- Yiftach HaGiladi (Jephthah the Gileadite)· d. 1090 BCE
Egyptian world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.