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.