Naomi

Naomi was from Bethlehem and had gone with her husband Elimelech and their two sons to Moab during a famine. There Elimelech died, and the sons married Moabite women — Orpah and Ruth. Ten years later both sons also died, leaving Naomi with two daughters-in-law and no male relative. She decided to return to Bethlehem and released both women from obligation. Orpah turned back, but Ruth refused to leave, saying the words that have become scripture's most famous expression of loyalty: "Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God."

When Naomi arrived back in Bethlehem, the town stirred and asked if it was her. She said: "Do not call me Naomi [pleasant]; call me Mara [bitter], for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty." Yet through Ruth's gleaning in Boaz's fields and Boaz's willingness to act as kinsman-redeemer, Naomi's emptiness was reversed. When Ruth bore a son, the women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, "He shall be to you a restorer of life." The child was Obed, father of Jesse, grandfather of David.