and Nahshon begot Salma, and Salma begot Boaz,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and Boaz begot Obed, and Obed begot Jesse;
Three names, one line: the kinsman who redeemed, the son of a Moabite mother, and the unknown farmer whose son became king. Chronicles lingers here because the line to the Messiah runs through this short chain.
Chronicles opens with chapter after chapter of names. One commentator notes that one tribe among the sons of Israel gets far more room than the rest.
This chapter sets the sons of Judah before us in detail — not those of Reuben or of Simeon. The object of the book is purpose. Judah was the tribe chosen first of all for the kingdom, and chosen with a view to the Messiah. So we can understand why the record traces his sons at such length.
Another writer traces David's line through this chapter and points out what Chronicles leaves out.
In 1 Chronicles 2:9-16 we have the genealogy of David, and this is the main thrust of that chapter. Chronicles says nothing at all about David's history and his sufferings as the rejected king. It sets forth David as the object of God's counsels about the kingship, counsels that Christ, the Son of David, will fully accomplish.
The first name in the verse carries its own meaning. In the book of Ruth a nearer relative came first in line, but he could not redeem.
Boaz, who is the instrument of blessing, the kinsman redeemer, is a type of the risen Christ. The name means "In him is strength." When the nearest kinsman failed, Boaz had the power of redemption. The nearer kinsman represents the law, and he could not redeem the inheritance. As the apostle wrote, if the inheritance comes by law, it is no longer by promise, and Ruth must receive everything as the gift of pure grace. So Boaz stepped in. No claim rested on him, though he was a kinsman. He acted out of his own heart of love and grace, bought the land, and married Ruth.
The middle name belongs to a man with almost no recorded story. What he has is a name, and a place in four short lists.
Obed means "servant." He was the son of the wealthy Boaz. By his name at least, and perhaps also by an obedient and dedicated life, he bore a quiet witness. It pointed to his coming grandson David, who "served the purpose of God in his own generation" (Acts 13:36). It pointed further to David's Son and David's Lord, whose service to God is unequalled. The record shows that in Obed's descendants his name became "renowned in Israel." Apart from the brief record in Ruth, it appears in only three places: 1 Chronicles 2:12, as the grandfather of David, and Matthew 1:5 and Luke 3:32, as the ancestor of the Messiah of Israel. But what remarkable honour for the son of a Moabitess — this association with the Anointed of Jehovah in His family line!
Obed's mother was Ruth, and the law shut her nation out of the Lord's congregation.
Ruth was a loving woman, but she came from a source a Jew found deeply offensive. She was a Moabitess, and so forbidden by the law to enter the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation. Jews loathed the Edomite and the Egyptian less, and their children could enter in the third generation (Deut. 23:3-8). Here was a still deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles. Whether the Jews like it or not, God has brought Rahab, the once immoral Gentile, and Ruth, the meek daughter of Moab, into the nation. More than that, He has brought them into the direct line from which the Messiah was to arise.
The verse stops at Jesse, not at his famous son. One writer explains why the smaller name is the one that gets used.
The name "Jesse" stands here, we believe, to heighten the contrast. David had become a name of great renown. Jesse only reminds us of the otherwise unknown farmer from whom David sprang. From one small and unknown the great Messiah was to spring, and yet to be the Root from which Jesse himself sprang.
- Strength. Boaz means "in him is strength." No claim rested on him, yet he redeemed, where the nearer kinsman, who stands for the law, could not.
- Service. Obed means "servant." His name survives in only four places in Scripture, this verse among them, always as a link toward the Messiah.
- Grace. The law barred Ruth the Moabitess from the congregation. Yet she stands in the direct line from which the Messiah came.
- Smallness. The line rests on Jesse, an unknown farmer, so that the great Messiah springs from him and is also the Root from which Jesse sprang.
- Purpose. Chronicles follows Judah because the book is about the kingdom. It presents David as the object of God's counsels, which Christ, the Son of David, will fully accomplish.