“Naomi the Nurse: Obed’s Ambiguous Identity Transmission”

Abstract

Three central figures within Israelite tradition—Isaac, Moses, and Samuel—are breastfed as infants by their own mothers, an activity that scholarship argues transfers identity. The case of the baby Obed, future grandfather of King David, however, is ambiguous: Ruth 4.16 articulates that Naomi becomes Obed’s “nurse,” derived from the root אמן‎, but not specifically that she “nurses” (breastfeeds) Obed, drawing on the root ינק‎. The present essay studies cases of the root אמן‎ when paired with a reference to a child or identified figure to assess Naomi’s role vis-à-vis Obed and to imagine the locus of Obed’s identity transmission. Though the text may be intentionally ambiguous, Naomi serves as Obed’s wet nurse and purveyor of Judahite kinship and identity.