The time reference here is important, since in a Tonga sociocultural setting it would immediately arouse the suspicions of the people whose village Naomi was entering. A person does not usually move during the period extending from after the fields have been planted until after the harvest has been completed. One’s crops mean life, and therefore it must have been some serious offense which drove Naomi away from her former home at such a time. Perhaps it had been divined that she was guilty of practicing witchcraft — after all, were not all her men now dead? No, she would not be welcomed with open arms into a Tonga village at this time of year.

Source: Wendland 1987, p. 171.