“Call me Mara”
Do not call me Naomi… Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. (Ruth 1:20–21 BSB)
What it sounds like today
An emotional renaming, as if she is just asking for a sadder nickname.
The cultural key
The two names are a Hebrew pun the English hides. Naomi means 'pleasant' or 'sweet'; Mara means 'bitter,' the same word Israel used for the undrinkable water at Marah in the wilderness (Exodus 15:23). To rename yourself was to make a claim about what God had done to you. Naomi does not blame a vague fate: she names the Almighty (Shaddai) and the LORD (YHWH) as the direct agents of her emptiness, with the same reverent boldness found in Job.
Recovered meaning
'Do not call me Sweet; call me Bitter, because God himself has drained me.' It is a raw act of faith, not doubt: she brings her losses straight to the God she still holds responsible, which is why the book's later reversals will land as his answer.