Mara

Mara (meaning bitter or bitterness) is the symbolic name Naomi gave to herself upon returning to Bethlehem from Moab after the deaths of her husband Elimelech and her two sons (Ruth 1:20–21). When the women of Bethlehem greeted her with the name Naomi (pleasant), she rebuked them: "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty." The renaming expresses the depth of her grief and her perception of divine chastening — she does not deny God's agency in her suffering but interprets it as bitterness rather than care.

The book of Ruth as a whole serves as a theodicy on Naomi's theology of bitterness: by the end, her emptiness is filled through Ruth's faithfulness and the birth of Obed, and the women of Bethlehem proclaim that the LORD has not left her without a redeemer (Ruth 4:14). The name Mara she gave herself is never used again after the opening chapter, as the narrative arc moves from bitterness toward restoration.