‘ And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty (Shaddai) has dealt very bitterly with me.”
But as Naomi heard her name being spoken it brought home to her the significance of her name, ‘sweetness' or ‘delight'. And it made her feel very bitter. She called on them not to speak of her as Naomi, but as Mara (bitterness), because Shaddai had dealt very bitterly with her. Note the use of Shaddai rather than YHWH. LXX translates as ‘the Almighty'. It was not the covenant name, but more a title which indicated His world-wide rule as God of the nations (Genesis 17:1 with Genesis 17:4-5, ‘a multitude of nations'; Genesis 28:3, ‘a company of peoples'; Genesis 35:11, a company of peoples). Naomi recognised that it was God in His world-wide sovereignty who had so dealt with her as she had, as it were, ‘dwelt among the nations'. Compare how it was as ‘El Shaddai' that God had ‘made Himself known to the patriarchs' (Exodus 6:3), that is, brought out the fullness of what the name signified by means of His activity as Lord over all nations, as he watched over them among the nations in a land that was not theirs, whereas it was not until His deliverance of His people at the Exodus that He had demonstrated the full significance of His Name as YHWH their covenant God and thus ‘made known' His Name to them by what He accomplished. His making known of Himself essentially as YHWH by means of His activity is a theme of Exodus. See Exodus 5:2; Exodus 6:3; Exodus 6:7; Exodus 7:5; Exodus 7:17; Exodus 8:22; Exodus 10:2; Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:18; Exodus 16:12; Exodus 29:46; Exodus 31:13; compare Exodus 9:14; Exodus 9:29. Note also Deuteronomy 29:6; Joshua 24:31; 1 Samuel 3:7).