H4755 H4755
Mara, a name meaning bitter (given by Naomi to express her grief and loss)
Mara is a name meaning 'bitter', taken by Naomi in Ruth 1:20 after losing her husband and sons. When she returns to Bethlehem, she tells the women, 'Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me'. The name expresses her profound grief and sense of God's harsh providence. While the root appears frequently as an adjective meaning 'bitter', this specific feminine form functions as a proper name, a deliberate self-renaming to reflect her suffering.
Senses
1. sense 1 — The name 'Mara' meaning 'bitter', adopted by Naomi to express her grief and suffering. The name-change is rhetorically powerful—Naomi (pleasant) becomes Mara (bitter), embodying her losses. The story later reverses this bitterness into restoration through Ruth and Boaz. The feminine form distinguishes this as a name rather than just an adjective, making her transformation of identity explicit. 1×
AR["مَارَا"]·ben["মারা"]·DE["[מרא]"]·EN["Mara"]·FR["Mara"]·heb["מרא"]·HI["मारा"]·ID["Mara"]·IT["Mara"]·jav["Mara"]·KO["마라라"]·PT["Mara'"]·RU["Мара"]·ES["Mará"]·SW["Mara"]·TR["Mara"]·urd["مارا"]
Related Senses
H7200 1. Qal: to see, perceive (1257×)G4771 2. you (singular address) (1077×)H8085 1. Qal: hear, perceive aurally (921×)H0859a 1. you (2nd person masculine singular pronoun) (743×)H0398 1. eat (consume food) (697×)H4191 1. die (Qal: natural/general death) (645×)G3708 1. see, perceive visually (419×)G0191 1. hear, perceive sound (360×)H???? 3. (352×)G3708 2. behold, look (exclamatory) (256×)H7272 1. foot (body part) (236×)H8354 1. drink, consume liquid (209×)H3205 1. Qal active: bear/give birth (female subject) (204×)H3205 2. Qal active: beget/father (male subject) (198×)H2421 1. Qal: live, be alive (177×)H8085 2. Qal: listen, heed, pay attention (172×)H2416a 1. alive, living (state/attribute) (146×)H2416e 1. life, lifespan, lifetime (145×)G2198 1. be alive, have life (133×)H8193 1. lip, lips (body part) (123×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† I. מַר adj. and subst. bitter, bitterness;—abs. מ׳ Pr 27:7 +, הַמַּר Hb 1:6, מָ֑ר ψ 64:4 +; cstr. מַר 1 S 22:2 +; f. מָרָה Gn 27:34 +, מָרָא Ru 1:20; cstr. מָרַת 1 S 1:10; mpl. מָרִים Ex 15:23 +; cstr. מָרֵי Ju 18:25 Pr 31:6;—bitter: 1. lit., of water Ex 15:23 (J); food Pr 27:7 (opp. מָתוֹק); wormwood (לַעֲנָה) Pr 5:4 (in sim. of end of harlot, cf. Ec 7:26 infr.); as subst. pl., of physical…