The Hebrew text does not attempt to identify the meanings of Naomi and Marah, since to any Hebrew reader the meaning would be obvious: Naomi would be understood as meaning “happy,” and Marah would be understood as meaning “bitter.” However, it may be useful to introduce something of the meaning of Naomi and Mara into the text itself; for example, “Don’t call me Naomi, the Happy One, … Call me Mara, the Sad One.” One can, of course, simply keep the names Naomi and Mara and then provide the meanings for these terms in a marginal note. Observe that Good News Translation explains both Naomi and Mara by a marginal note at this point.

Almighty God renders the Hebrew proper name Shaddai. It is impossible here to deal with all of the problems represented by this proper name. It occurs in a number of writings as another name for Yahweh, See Johs. Pedersen, Israel, Its Life and Culture, III-IV, London and Copenhagen, 1947, page 665; Alt, “Der Gott der Väter,” Beitr. z. Wiss. vom AT, 3 Folge, Heft 12, 1929. According to B. D. Eerdmans (k The Religion of Israel, Leiden, 1947, page 20), Yahweh is identified in a few passages with Shaddai, but in others El Shaddai refers to the protecting genius of the family. In all other instances Shaddai should be distinguished from Yahweh. Only in a later period in which all divine powers were absorbed by Yahweh, Shaddai became equivalent with the God of the covenant. See also B. D. Eerdmans, Studies in Job 1939, page 12. One should not exclude the possibility that Ruth 1.20b contains an allusion to Job 27.2. This could account for the use of Shaddai, which is found only in 1.20-21. and a translator may transcribe Shaddai as do some modern translations (for example, Bible de Jérusalem and Dhorme). A more common practice is to employ a translation such as “the Almighty” or “Almighty God.” To do so implies, of course, that the name is translatable, whereas in reality its meaning is quite obscure. For the different proposals as to the possible derivations, as well as for the literature on the subject, see the dictionaries. However, the translation “Almighty” does have a very old tradition, and therefore one may be justified in using some such expression as “the most powerful God,” “God who can do all things,” or “the most powerful One.”

Has made my life bitter involves a pun in Hebrew, since Marah (Revised Standard Version “Mara,” following the Masoretic text) may be used not only to describe a person, but to identify the way in which one has been caused to suffer. Moffatt attempts to bring a play on words in his English translation: “Call me Mara, for the Almighty has cruelly marred me.” Accidentally, because English “mar” seems to be derived from a Germanic root marr-II. Compare R. Grandsaignes d’Hauterive, Dictionnaire des racines des langues européennes, Paris, 1948, s.v. marr-II. Sometimes one can preserve something of the pun by translating “Call me Mara because the Almighty God has treated me bitterly,” in which case it is necessary to have a footnote indicating that Mara means “bitter.” There is, however, a serious complication for such a translation in English. If one says “Call me Mara, the Bitter One,” then “bitter” may be understood in a wrong sense, and even the phrase “has treated me bitterly” could appear to refer to God’s attitude rather than to the extent of Naomi’s suffering. Even a translation such as “it is a bitter lot that the Almighty has sent me,” though somewhat more acceptable in English, would rarely be translatable literally into another language.

Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Ruth. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .