Naomi
(fl. 12th-11th cent BCE)
Israelite woman, wife of
Elimelech. With her husband and sons (Mahlon and Chilion), she left Bethlehem for Moab during a famine. After several years, during which time
Elimelech and her sons died, she returned with
Ruth, her daughter-in-law, whom she helped to marry the Israelite landowner
Boaz.
Dictionary of Jewish Biography.
Dan Cohn-Sherbok.