Hebrew Naomi, "pleasant." Israelite woman from Bethlehem during the era of the judges (Ruth 1:1). With her husband Elimelech and two sons Mahlon and Chilion she emigrated to Moab during a famine. Within about ten years all three men died, leaving Naomi a widow in a foreign country with her two Moabite daughters-in-law. She returned to Bethlehem with Ruth, the one daughter-in-law who would not leave her, insisting on being renamed "Mara" — "bitter" — because "the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me... I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty" (Ruth 1:20-21).
Naomi is the book of Ruth's shadow protagonist. Though Ruth gets the title and the vocal moments, the book is structured around Naomi's emptying and filling. She starts full (husband, sons, daughters-in-law) and is emptied (all three men dead). She returns bitter, convinced God has turned against her. But through Ruth's loyalty and Boaz's kinsman-redemption, Naomi is slowly refilled: a daughter-in-law closer than blood ("your daughter-in-law who loves you... is more to you than seven sons," 4:15), a grandson laid in her arms ("a son has been born to Naomi!" 4:17), and a place in the lineage of David and of the Messiah. Ruth 4 ends with a genealogy that reminds the reader: the empty widow who thought God had abandoned her was actually being placed in the very ancestry of the Coming King. Naomi's story teaches three things: (1) feelings about God in seasons of grief may be badly wrong — she accused Him of bitterness while He was arranging her redemption; (2) God often uses others to carry us in faith when our own faith is flagging — Ruth's faith carries Naomi; (3) God is writing a bigger story than we can see at the moment — the "emptying" often turns out to be preparation for an "overflow" beyond anything we imagined.