And Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in unto her, and Jehovah gave her conception, and she bore a son.
A story that began with famine, death, and a widow calling herself bitter ends with a marriage and a son. The verse credits that son not to nature but to the LORD — and through him a dead man's name reaches the line of David.
The last line of Ruth's story answers the first. She left Moab with nothing, and here she is a wife in Israel.
"So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife." What an unexpected, bright, happy ending to a path that began in sorrow and loneliness! With firm purpose of heart she had turned her back on Moab and its gods, to go to Israel's land and to trust Israel's God.
At the town gate the people and the elders had spoken blessings over this couple. Here God Himself makes those blessings good.
reason: cuts full re-quote of featured verse in non-ESV wording; adds the line to David
Boaz had bought back a dead man's land. Without a child, buying it back would have left the family name buried.
Naomi, the widow of Elimelech, was the "seller." So she had the main interest in the redemption of her husband's inheritance in Bethlehem. Boaz said as much in front of everyone when he arranged to buy it (4:5). Once the property had passed to Boaz, she longed to see with her own eyes an heir born to Boaz and Ruth. Then her husband's name would live on in his tribe, and the redemption would reach its main goal... The LORD granted Naomi's desire for a family heir, and rewarded her faith in Him with the gift of a grandson.
Naomi herself had argued that no rescue was possible.
No woman's situation looked more disastrous — even hopeless — than Naomi's, as she admitted herself. Her appeal to Orpah and Ruth rested on one thing: humanly speaking, no rescue could come, and no one could raise up the name of the dead on the inheritance. But impossibility is a word never to be named with God... It is a good thing that we should feel our utter weakness; it is intolerable that we should ever limit Him.
One writer finds a wider picture in Naomi's empty years. He also notes the order: union first, then fruit.
Naomi was now a widow, desolate, fruitless, and without resources of her own... She is a striking picture of the Jewish nation, which lost God as its king and husband, and is now widowed and desolate. But a feeble remnant — the meek and lowly Ruth — clings to Naomi, and in effect takes shelter under the wings of the God of Israel... But "fruit for God," notice, is the result of our union with "him who has been raised from the dead." (See Rom. 7:1-4)
The women of the town speak of the newborn as though the right of redemption now rests on him.
"And the LORD gave [Ruth] conception." Now that grace has given this heir, the women again take up the people's prophetic line of thought... They transfer the right of redemption that Boaz had used to the head of his son. So they look ahead to the future redemption that the man born of Ruth will accomplish. In Him, they add, the old age of the people will find a nourisher, their weakness will find a restorer.
One writer looks past this wedding to a greater one still ahead.
The day of the marriage of the Lamb will be the great answer to the work of redemption. The glory is the answer to the cross. In that day the Bride will be infinitely blessed, but the Lamb will gain power and fame. All the glory will be His.
- Redemption first. Boaz bought the field and married Ruth before any child came. The marriage completes a rescue, not just a love story.
- God gives. The people and the elders spoke blessings at the gate; the verse says the LORD gave conception. What they asked for, He gave.
- Fruit follows. The son comes only after the marriage. One writer ties this to Romans 7: fruit for God grows out of union with the risen Christ.
- Nothing is impossible. Naomi had reasoned that no heir could ever come. Feeling our weakness is healthy; limiting God is not.
- The line runs on. The child keeps a dead man's name alive and takes his place in the family line. From that line came David, and out of Bethlehem the Ruler of Israel.
And the women said to Naomi, Blessed be Jehovah who hath not left thee this day without one that has the right of redemption, and may his name be famous in Israel!
Naomi had come back to Bethlehem saying she returned empty. Now the women of the town stand around her, and there is a newborn in the house. Their words are not congratulations to the parents. They are praise to God. Writers ask why the women call the child the redeemer, and not Boaz, and how this small blessing reaches the line of David.
The women do not credit Boaz's generosity or Ruth's loyalty. They name the one who stood behind both.
The women of the town, being godly neighbours, joined together to bless the God of Israel. He had raised up an heir to the inheritance — an inheritance long left unclaimed, but now redeemed.
These neighbours saw more than a happy family event.
The women of the neighbourhood also saw how remarkably the LORD had worked in this case. With reverence and understanding, they expressed their sympathy and delight to the elderly Naomi rather than to Ruth herself.
The word behind "redeemer" is goel. It names the man who holds the right of redemption, the right Boaz had just used. Naomi had no such man left. The women say God has now given her one.
They told Naomi that in this baby boy the LORD had given her the goel she had until then lacked. In this way He had made her inheritance secure, not only for the present but for the future too.
Some writers see the women's words reaching past the child in front of them.
They transfer the right of redemption that Boaz had used to the head of his son. So they look ahead to the future redemption that the man born of Ruth would accomplish. In Him, they add, the old age of the people will find a nourisher, their weakness will find a restorer.
Naomi's own argument to her daughters-in-law had been that there was no way back.
But how sweet that things should have come down to the lowest point perhaps found in any house in Israel! If any woman's condition seemed not just disastrous but hopeless, it was Naomi, and she admitted it herself. Her appeal to Orpah and Ruth rested on an impossibility. As men saw it, no deliverance could come, and no one could raise up the name of the dead on the inheritance. But impossibility is a word never to be used of God, except to say that He will never lie or act below Himself. It is a good thing that we should feel our utter weakness; it is intolerable that we should ever limit Him.
Read against chapter one, the blessing is a direct reply to what Naomi had said on the day she arrived.
The women seem to have had in mind Naomi's words of complaint when she returned from Moab to Bethlehem. She had said then that she went away full, with a husband and two sons. She came back empty, with neither husband nor son. But the LORD, whom she had blamed, had looked on her low condition. He dealt with her not bitterly but generously... In him, her dying family possessions found living hope again.
Ruth came from Moab, an outsider to Israel. Writers find meaning in that.
They rejoice, and they bless the Lord, because He has not left His desolate people without a Redeemer. and He is indeed "renowned in Israel." Ruth too is not forgotten, and everyone acknowledges her faithful devotion... Israel according to the flesh would have been utterly worthless for restoring blessing. But this Gentile daughter-in-law, who speaks of faith and repentance, is better than all the excellence of the flesh.
The women's wish for a famous name did not stop with Obed.
Scripture shows that in Obed's descendants his name became "renowned in Israel." Apart from this brief record in Ruth, his name appears nowhere else. It is found only in 1 Chronicles 2:12, as the grandfather of David, and in Matthew 1:5 and Luke 3:32, as an ancestor of the Messiah of Israel. What remarkable honour for the son of a Moabite woman — to be named in the family line of the Anointed of the LORD!
- Empty — Naomi said herself that rescue looked impossible. Feeling our weakness is healthy; limiting God is not.
- Redeemer — the goel was the man who held the right of redemption. The women tell Naomi that the child is the redeemer she had gone without, and her inheritance is secure for the future.
- Blessed — the praise goes past Boaz and Ruth to the LORD who raised up the heir. The women speak it to the grieving old woman, not the young mother.
- Full — the blessing answers her own complaint. She went out full and came back empty; the LORD dealt with her generously, not bitterly.
- Famous — the LORD granted the wish for a renowned name. Obed's name reaches David and the family line of the Messiah — through the son of a Moabite woman.
And he shall be to thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter-in-law who loves thee, who is better to thee than seven sons, has borne him.
Naomi had come home from Moab with nothing left of her family and had told the town to stop calling her by her old name. Now the women of Bethlehem stand over a newborn and hand her back a future. They bless the grieving widow, not the young mother.
One writer notices how the story turns the spotlight.
A son is born to Ruth, but in a beautiful way it is not Ruth but Naomi who comes into prominence here. The aged mother, with blasted life and bitter memories, is before us now with the young babe in her arms. All the past is forgotten except to contrast it with the joyful present.
By her own account, her case was closed.
If there was a woman whose condition seemed not only disastrous but hopeless, it was Naomi, as she confessed herself. But "impossible" is a word never to be used of God — except that He cannot lie or act below Himself. It is a good thing that we should feel our utter weakness; it is intolerable that we should ever limit Him.
The two titles given to the baby answer what Naomi had said about herself when she came home. The writer below calls the child her goel — the family redeemer who buys back a lost inheritance.
The women seem to have had in mind Naomi's words of complaint on her return from Moab to Bethlehem. She said then that she went away full — with a husband and two sons — and had returned empty, with neither a husband nor a son. But the LORD, Whom she had blamed, had regarded her "low estate," and had dealt with her not bitterly but generously. Ruth, the wife of the wealthy Boaz, had now become a mother. In the newborn baby, Naomi saw the goel of her husband's inheritance for the years ahead. The little grandson would be the "restorer of her life." In him, her dying family possessions found living hope again.
Another writer draws out the warmth in "nourisher of your old age."
This little boy opened up an avenue of blessing and hope for her that previously did not exist. We understand why grandmothers and grandfathers like their grandchildren so much. They look at them, love them and care for them. In them they see a continuation of those they love, their own daughters and sons. So it was with Naomi. Her heart rejoiced in her old age as she looked at this little boy.
Naomi means "pleasant"; back home she had called herself Mara, "bitter". Seven sons stood for a complete family, and the women now weigh Ruth against that.
In Ruth she had found "the comfort of love" in the loneliness of her threefold bereavement. Ruth had loved her when she was Naomi the pleasant, and she still loved and clung to her when she was Mara the bitter widow. Was Naomi still grieving that she had lost her two sons in Moab? Why, they said, Ruth herself "is more to you than seven sons." A mother of seven or more sons had great honour in family life.
Ruth is also a Moabite, an outsider, which sharpens the comparison:
Ruth too is not forgotten, and everyone acknowledges her faithful devotion. Israel by natural descent would have been worthless for restoring blessing. But this daughter-in-law from outside Israel pictures, as we have seen, faith and repentance. She is worth more than every natural advantage.
The women's words reach past one baby in one village. Commentators read the picture in different ways. One sees Israel's future redemption:
They transfer the right of redemption that Boaz had exercised to the head of his son. So they look ahead to the future redemption that the man born of Ruth will accomplish. In Him, they add, the old age of the people will find a nourisher, and their weakness will find a restorer. His name will be linked with the name of Ruth — this poor remnant, whose affections are set on Naomi, the much afflicted people of God. To that people she is worth more than a perfect number of sons.
Another applies the same exchange — Naomi's husband Elimelech and her sons lost, Ruth gained — to Christ Himself:
She had lost Elimelech and her sons in the land of Moab, but she had gained Ruth, who was better to her than seven sons. In this we have a picture of what the Lord has lost and gained by His death.
- Empty — Naomi came home saying she had nothing left, and called her own case hopeless. This verse is God's answer to a woman who had given up.
- Given — the baby restores and nourishes because he saves a family inheritance that was dying out. Hope came back to Naomi in a person.
- Loved — Ruth counts for more than seven sons, the highest honour a home could claim. She clung to Naomi when Naomi was bitter, not only when she was pleasant.
- Outsider — blessing comes back through a Moabite woman of faith. She is worth more than any natural advantage.
- Redeemer — writers see a greater Redeemer promised in this baby. They differ on the picture: some point to Israel's future redemption, others to what Christ gained by His death.
And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it.
The book of Ruth closes in Bethlehem, where a widow who came home with nothing now holds a newborn. Two questions follow: what did being "nurse" to Obed mean for Naomi, and why does Scripture record an old woman's private joy at all?
The word does not describe feeding a baby so much as taking charge of one. One writer shows where else the same word appears, and what Naomi gave the child:
She took an intense interest in the baby. She was ready to give her energy and experience to bringing him up in the ways of the Lord, as "grandmother Lois" seems to have done with Timothy (2 Tim. 1:5). "Nurse" or "foster-parent" is a general word for someone who instructs and protects. Moses uses it of his own work, speaking to Jehovah about leading Israel in the wilderness: "… You say to me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nursing-father carries the infant, to the land …" (Num. 11:12). See also Isa. 49:23.
The last scene of the book belongs to the older woman, not the young mother. One writer points to what happens to her bitter past:
A son is born to Ruth, but in a beautiful way it is not Ruth but Naomi who comes into prominence here. The aged mother, with a ruined life and bitter memories, is before us now with the young baby in her arms. All the past is forgotten except to contrast it with the joyful present.
Naomi had argued herself out of hope. One writer takes that as the reason this scene matters, and then looks at the child in her arms — the son of Ruth, a foreigner:
But how sweet that things should have come down to the lowest point perhaps found in any house in Israel! If there was a woman whose condition seemed not only disastrous but hopeless, it was Naomi, as she confessed herself. She urged Orpah and Ruth to turn back. Her argument was that, humanly speaking, no deliverance could come, and the name of the dead could not be raised up on the inheritance. But impossibility is a word never to be named with God... It is a good thing that we should feel our utter weakness; it is intolerable that we should ever limit Him... But now what joy filled the heart of the aged mother-in-law, once so forlorn, when she took the child of Ruth — a Moabite woman, though all that was now merged in her husband Boaz!
One writer reads the whole scene as a picture of Israel, and traces it back to grace:
What makes this picture so perfectly beautiful is that Ruth had no direct claim on Boaz. He was not the nearest relative, so it was all grace. Israel, as well as the other nations, must now come into the inheritance on the ground of pure grace... Touching scene! Lovely grace! The widow's heart is made to sing as in the days of her youth. The desolate one has become, as it were, a mother of children. The bereaved bosom is again filled with a living heir. All is joy. Here we have pictured in the loveliest way the full restoration of Israel to honour, glory, and dignity in the land. The true Boaz will soon take up the cause of the God-fearing remnant, and re-establish Israel in the land on an entirely new footing.
(Older translations read "laid it in her bosom"; the ESV has "laid him on her lap." The line quoted above from Numbers 11:12 also follows an older wording; the ESV reads "as a nurse carries a nursing child.")
The story's ending is not only prophecy. One writer applies it to readers now, and then looks at where this obscure family led:
As long as we are here — better, as long as the Spirit of God is here — He lives in each of us and with us together. So recovery and restoration are always a real possibility, provided we are prepared to make the decisions... there is every possibility that God will cause us to rejoice and to praise and to worship Him for His restoring grace and mercy... How wonderful that this whole chain of events was not connected with the leaders, but with what we might call an obscure family in Judah. It was unfolding toward its end in Christ, the true David, David's greater Son.
- Empty. Naomi came home from Moab calling her own case hopeless. This verse is God's reply.
- Filled. The bereaved widow now holds a living heir. Her past survives only as a contrast to present joy.
- Impossible. Naomi herself had argued that no deliverance could come. Feeling our weakness is good; limiting God is not.
- Grace. Ruth had no claim on Boaz. The whole restoration rests on grace, and pictures Israel set up again on a new footing.
- Recovery. What God did for one obscure family He can still do. Right decisions, made now, open the way to restoration, worship — and, in Ruth's case, to Christ.
And the women [her] neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
The book closes not with a wedding but with a baby, and with a line of names running down to a king. The women of Bethlehem name him, and that name ties one family's private sorrow to the future of Israel.
The child belongs, by birth, to Boaz and Ruth. Yet the neighbours credit him to the older woman. One writer ties that back to the bitter years she spent far from home:
They do not say born to Boaz or to Ruth, but to Naomi. The child would never have been born except for the bitter "Mara" in that faraway land.
Earlier, Naomi had told her daughters-in-law there was no way forward. The end of the story answers her:
How sweet that things had come down to the lowest point perhaps found in any house in Israel! If there was a woman whose state seemed not only miserable but hopeless, it was Naomi, as she admitted herself. She told Orpah and Ruth that no rescue could come, and that the name of the dead could not be raised up on the inheritance — humanly speaking, it was impossible. But "impossible" is a word never to be used of God... It is good that we should feel how weak we are. It is intolerable that we should ever limit Him.
The neighbours do more than congratulate Naomi. They also choose what the boy will be called:
The neighbouring women took such a warm interest that they chose a name for the child themselves, just as the neighbours of Elizabeth did in later days (Luke 1:58-59). They counted the child as Naomi's, because he was tied to the redemption of the inheritance that stood in her name... Naomi and the child's parents accepted the neighbours' choice, and he was called Obed. Both worship and service towards God seem to be held in the meaning of this name, and these two qualities sum up the attitude man owes to God.
Worship is what God looks for from people. One writer shows what it cost:
Here we see another result for the Lord Jesus. He came forth from the Father because the Father sought worshippers (John 4:23). And for this He suffered and died. And in this respect His death has not been in vain, for by that death He has brought a countless host to God, all ransomed by His precious blood.
The last clause is short, and it carries the point of the whole book:
The story ends by saying that Obed, the son of Boaz and Ruth, "is the father of Jesse, the father of David." That short sentence states the main aim of the whole record. A fuller family list then follows, tracing David's line back as far as Perez, the son of Judah.
The line does not stop at David. One writer follows it forward to a throne that lasts:
In David of Bethlehem the throne was set up, and in David's Son it will be set up for ever... for out of Bethlehem-Ephratah has come the Seed of Ruth, according to the flesh, Who will be Ruler of His people Israel.
Ruth came from Moab, and God's law stood against her. Her place in this family tree is remarkable:
So the woman of Moab stood condemned by the law of the Lord. Yet, though He could not receive her righteously under His own law, He accepted her in His own mercy. And out of the riches of His coming glory by Christ Jesus, He also gave her an honoured place in the royal records of the Son of God. As to the flesh, that Son came at the appointed time from the seed of her great-grandson, David (Rom. 1:2-4).
The setting sharpens it. Her story falls in a dark time, when Israel had no king:
Darkness and ruin had taken over when "there was no king in Israel"... but "the son born to Naomi" was the forefather of the Lord's King, Whom He would anoint at the appointed time on Zion, His holy hill (Ps. 2:6). So in Judges 17—21 we see Israel's sin overflowing in shocking detail, but in Ruth we see the grace, mercy, and faithfulness of God overflowing far more.
- Emptiness first. Naomi called her own case hopeless. The verse still names the child hers, because the gift grew out of her loss.
- Grace answers it. What she called impossible, God did. Feeling our weakness is good; limiting Him is not.
- Grace names it. The neighbours call the boy Obed — worshipper, servant. That is what man owes God, and it is the fruit Christ died to gather.
- Grace reaches wide. God's law condemned a woman from Moab; His mercy received her and wrote her into the royal record.
- Grace ends in a King. Obed to Jesse to David, and from David's town to David's Son, Whose throne stands for ever.