field_section_text_value

field_section_text_value

Naomi’s prominence continues in scene two (2:1–23). Her name is the first word. It links her to a wealthy kinsman named Boaz. Meanwhile, Naomi grants Ruth permission to glean wherever she is received (2:2). When Ruth finds favor in the field of Boaz, a servant identifies her to him by invoking the name of Naomi (2:6). Boaz also alludes to Naomi as Ruth’s mother-in-law (2:11). In the evening Ruth returns to Naomi, who initiates (2:19) and concludes (2:22) their conversation. Passing judgment on Ruth’s day, Naomi utters words of blessing for the first time (2:19–20). They pertain to the man, as yet unidentified for her, who helped Ruth (2:19). Upon learning that the man is Boaz, Naomi adds the name of the Lord to her blessing (2:20) and so invokes the God whom she has earlier faulted as the giver of bitterness (1:13, 21). Naomi is changing (2:20–22).

As the last to speak in scene two (2:22) and the first to speak in scene three (3:1–18), Naomi continues to direct the plot of the narrative. Not waiting for matters to take their course or for God to intervene, she plans to secure Boaz as husband for Ruth. In seeking security through marriage, her plan fits the strictures of patriarchy, but it departs from them in proposing a dangerous scheme. Naomi tells her “daughter” to dress in fine clothes and visit Boaz in secret at the threshing floor. There she will ask him to make good on his prayer for her blessing (3:3–5). The plan succeeds. The scene ends with the two women discussing the events of the night. Naomi again initiates (3:16) and concludes (3:18) their exchange. From being the receiver of calamity, she has become the agent of change and challenge.

Naomi never speaks again; her work is finished. Nevertheless, she figures prominently in the last scene (4:1–21), her name appearing six times. Boaz depicts Naomi as the owner of property (4:3, 5, 9). The women of Bethlehem invoke YHWH’s blessing upon Naomi through Ruth and the grandchild Ruth bears her (4:14–15). The narrator reports that Naomi embraces the child and becomes his nurse. And at the end, the women even declare that the child has been born to Naomi (4:17).

Feminist assessments of Naomi diverge widely, depending often upon the cultural, social, ideological, and experiential biases of readers. A sampling includes the following: Naomi is a cipher for male values that find fulfillment for women in marriage and children. In contrast to the loss of status for childless widows in patriarchy, Naomi achieves importance as a mother-in-law and an independent character. Naomi is an overbearing, interfering, and domineering mother-in-law. Naomi is a caring, gracious, and altruistic mother-in-law. Naomi the Judean rejects Ruth (and Orpah) because she is a Moabite. Naomi embraces Ruth the Moabite within the family of Judah. Naomi and Ruth are rivals, with Naomi eventually achieving the greater prestige. Naomi and Ruth are friends, indeed sisterlike, each seeking the good of the other in a world over which they have little control. Naomi schemes, connives, and manipulates. Naomi plans, reflects, and executes. Naomi is an embittered old woman who denounces God for her troubles but fails to thank the deity when she recovers. Naomi is a profound figure of faith who experiences God as enemy but then wrestles blessing from adversity. All such disparate judgments attest to Naomi’s commanding, if ambiguous, presence in one of the few biblical stories focused on women.