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.
Now these are the generations of Pherez. Pherez begot Hezron,
The book of Ruth ends with a list of names, and the first is Perez (Pharez), a son born in one of the Bible's ugliest family stories. Why close a village love story with a family tree, and why start the tree there?
The story has already reached David. What the list adds is proof of which tribe the throne belongs to.
This family table comes with no comment, yet it matters. It is plain proof that David descended from the tribe of Judah. The right to rule and to give law in Israel belonged to that tribe, according to the inspired promise and prophecy that Jacob gave on his deathbed (Gen. 49). This short list of names is enough on its own to overturn every rival claim to the throne, whether from the tribe of Ephraim or from the tribe of Benjamin.
The same writer notes how much history those few names cover.
This period (Ruth 4:18-22) covers the rise of the nation. It runs from the misery of slavery in Egypt to the glory and riches of world fame in Canaan, with David on the throne.
The obvious place to start would be Judah, head of the greatest tribe. Instead the list opens with Judah's son by Tamar, his daughter-in-law.
Isn't it remarkable that this record begins with Pharez? … Who was Pharez? Genesis 38 gives the answer. Why not begin with his father, Judah? His was the greatest of the tribes of Israel. But the promised blessing had to come through Pharez, the son of Tamar. God led His line of promise through the lowly things of the world, and took up those that people would reject. This was to magnify His grace and exalt His name… So it comes about that, if the beginning is Pharez, the end is David.
The names given in that chapter carry their own meaning.
Pharez means a "breaking through," and Zerah means a "rising up." God brings in this generation to show that He had another order of manhood in view, a line that would reach its high point in the Beloved, in David (Ruth 4:18-22). His name, as you know, means Beloved. Despite all man's breakdown, despite all man's failure, despite all man's sin, God reaches this wonderful point; He brings in David, a man after His own heart.
The list is selective, and what it leaves out says as much as what it keeps.
The list contains ten generations, and they fall into two groups of five. The first five names — Pherez to Nahshon — belong mainly to Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness. The second five — Salmon to David — belong to Israel in the land, up to the time when God's chosen king took the throne… God had decreed that the line of descent from Pherez would end with the Messiah, and so He watched over it without a break. Elimelech's name does not appear in the list, but Boaz does, the son of Salmon. This choice shows the religious importance of Ruth's marriage and of the redemption of the inheritance — an importance the happy couple themselves probably never knew about.
This is not the last place these ten names appear.
The Book closes with a short family line of ten names, ending with David the King. In the opening chapter of the New Testament these same ten names hold an honoured place in the family line of the King of kings. There is one difference: the Spirit of God has added four women to these names — one of them Ruth the Moabite. It is striking that each of these women brings with her a story of failure and shame. That only makes plain that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
The weight of those Gentile names goes back to the promise given to Abraham.
Here light breaks in at once. The Seed of Abraham is the One in whom all families of the earth are to be blessed — Gentile as well as Jew — and these three names are Gentile names. How pointless, then, to try to deny the Gentiles their part in Christ!
- Grace breaking through. The list opens with Perez, whose name means a breaking through. He was born in the dark story of Genesis 38, so God's line pushes up through human failure, not around it.
- Grace choosing. God led the promise through what people would reject, "to magnify His grace and exalt His name," instead of starting the record with Judah.
- Grace hidden. Ten names in two groups of five run from Egypt to the throne. Elimelech drops out, Boaz stays in, and a couple who knew nothing of it served a line God watched over without a break.
- Grace widened. The same ten names reopen the New Testament, now with four women attached — proof that where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
- Grace arriving. God decreed that the line would end with the Messiah. Gentile names stand in it, so no one can deny the nations their part in Christ.
and Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab,
These two names sit in the middle of the ten-name family line that closes the book of Ruth. Why should a story about a widow, a harvest field, and a redeemed inheritance end in a list of names?
The list runs from Perez, son of Judah, down to David, and verse 19 supplies its third and fourth links. One writer sets out its shape and its purpose:
The list contains ten generations, and you can divide them into two groups of five. The first five names — Perez to Nahshon — belong mainly to Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness. The second five — Salmon to David — belong to Israel in the land, up to the time when God set up the kingdom under His chosen king. The family table shows the distinct royal line promised to the nation. ... God had decreed that the line of descent from Perez would end with the Messiah, so He kept watch over it without a break.
Ram and Amminadab stand in that first group. They belong to the generations who came out of Egypt and walked the wilderness.
One name from the story does not appear in the list, and another stands in its place:
Elimelech's name does not appear in the list, but Boaz does, the son of Salmon. This choice shows the religious importance of Ruth's marriage and of the redemption of the inheritance — an importance the happy couple themselves were perhaps completely unaware of.
The same writer points out what this plain list of names settles:
This family table comes with no comment, yet it matters. It is plain proof that David descended from the tribe of Judah. The sceptre and the lawgiver in Israel belonged to that tribe, just as Jacob promised and prophesied by inspiration on his deathbed (Gen. 49). This short list of names is evidence enough on its own to overturn every rival claim to royalty by the tribe of Ephraim or the tribe of Benjamin.
Hezron had an older son, and the line did not run through him. A writer on the matching list in 1 Chronicles shows how family traits pass down:
Although Jerahmeel was Hezron's eldest son (v. 9), he is put in last place here again (v. 25)... The features of the natural man pass on just as surely as the features of a man of faith like Caleb; only in the man of faith they pass on by grace. David's line does not descend from Jerahmeel, but from Ram, his younger brother (vv. 9-16).
These are not blank names. Amminadab's family reached into both the priesthood and the leadership of Judah:
Hezron was the firstborn of Perez. Ram is sometimes called Aram (Matt. 1:3). Amminadab was the father of Elisheba. She became the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Aaron was the first of Israel's high priests, an office handed down in his family (Ex. 6:23). Nahshon (Naason) was Aaron's brother-in-law (Ex. 6:23), and prince or head of the tribe of Judah (Num. 1:7; Num. 2:3; 1 Chron. 2:10).
These names carry meaning. One writer puts Amminadab's name beside his son's:
Nahshon means "a diviner." Some diviners were inspired by Satan, but others were inspired by God, and God is meant here. Judah's name means "praise," and God gives the true worshipper grace to discern all things, even the future, as he takes in the word of God... Amminadab, the father of Nahshon, means "the people of the liberal giver." God is indeed the Liberal Giver.
Perez heads the whole chain, and not his father Judah. One writer asks why:
Why not begin with Perez's father, Judah? Judah's was the greatest of the tribes of Israel. But the promised blessing had to come through Perez, the son of Tamar. God led His line of promise through the lowly things of the world, and took up those whom man would reject. He did this to magnify His grace and exalt His name. How unlike man! With man, the greater the goal in front of him, the better the means he uses.
- Lowly — the list starts with Perez, not with Judah. God led His line of promise through lowly things and took up what man would reject.
- Chosen — the names are often not the eldest. The line skips Hezron's firstborn and runs through the younger Ram, for the features of faith pass on by grace.
- Watched — God decreed that this line would end with the Messiah. So He kept constant watch over every generation in it, Ram and Amminadab included.
- Giving — Amminadab means "the people of the liberal giver." His house gave Israel both Aaron's wife and Judah's prince.
- Royal — this bare list of names proves that David came from Judah, the tribe that held the sceptre. It silences every rival claim to the throne.
and Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon,
The book of Ruth closes with a list of ten generations, from Perez to David. This verse sits at the centre of it: three names, and no story attached — yet commentators find here the hinge between Israel's wilderness years and the nation's life in the land, and quiet proof that God was keeping the royal line.
This list settles a question the books after Ruth will raise: which family had the right to Israel's throne.
This table of lineage is given without comment, yet it is important. It forms plain proof that David descended from the tribe of Judah. The sceptre and the lawgiver in Israel belonged to that tribe, according to the inspired promise and prophecy of Jacob on his deathbed (Gen. 49). The evidence of this short list of names is enough in itself to overturn all rival claims to royalty, whether by the tribe of Ephraim or by the tribe of Benjamin. So it links the Book of Ruth to the histories that follow in the Books of Samuel: king Saul of Gibeah in Benjamin, and king David of Bethlehem in Judah.
These are not blank names. Their family ties reach into the priesthood and into the leadership of the tribe.
Amminadab was the father of Elisheba. She became the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses and the first of Israel's hereditary high priests (Ex. 6:23). Nahshon (Naason) was brother-in-law of Aaron (Ex. 6:23), and prince or head of the tribe of Judah (Num. 1:7; Num. 2:3; 1 Chron. 2:10). Salmon (Salma), son of Nahshon, married Rahab the prostitute, and was the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5). Salmon was probably one of the two men Joshua sent secretly to Jericho, who stayed in Rahab's house (Joshua 2).
Both names carry a meaning, and one writer reads them as father and son together.
Nahshon means "a diviner," not necessarily in a bad sense. It is a word used for careful observation (1 Kings 20:33). Divining, apart from the heathen practice so often linked with it, is only the discernment of the future in the present. The child of God may discern in this way too... Nahshon is therefore the son of Amminadab, which means "the people of the Liberal Giver." Here faith gains its foresight. It comes from knowing the free grace of Him to whom we belong.
Between Judah and David most of the names pass by without distinction. Nahshon is one of the few exceptions, and the company he keeps is striking.
From Judah to David there is only a line of names with no distinguishing mark, except for three. Two of these three stand out because of their sin. Er, whom the Lord killed; Achar, the troubler of Israel; and Nahshon, the prince of the children of Judah.
Count the ten names. This verse falls at the turn. The last of the wilderness men fathers the first of the men of the land.
The list contains ten generations, and they fall into two groups of five. The first five names — Perez to Nahshon — belong mainly to Israel in Egypt and in the wilderness. The second five — Salmon to David — belong to Israel in the land, up to the time when Israel's monarchy began under God's chosen king. The pedigree shows the distinct royal line promised to the nation... God decreed that the line of descent from Perez would end with the Messiah, and so He watched over it without a break.
Salmon, the last name in this verse, is the man who married Rahab of Jericho.
Grace moved the prostitute of Jericho into the most honoured motherhood in Israel. She became a mother in that royal line from which David came, and David's greater Son. She became the wife of Salmon, the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5).
Her new family ties ran straight through the names in this verse:
Nahshon's sister, Elisheba, was the wife of Aaron the chief priest. What a position for a poor Canaanite prostitute to be brought into! She became daughter-in-law to the royal prince of Israel and niece by marriage to the chief priest. The genealogy of the Messiah names her, though it passes over even the names of Sarah, Rebekah and Rachel... And God gave her a son, Boaz, a name meaning "strength", whose wife was Ruth the Moabitess, also named in the royal line. Boaz and Ruth were the great-grandparents of David the King. Such was the reward of Rahab's faith.
- Kept — the list is plain proof that David came from Judah, the tribe that held the sceptre. It cancels every rival claim to the throne.
- Named — these men were no unknowns. Amminadab's daughter married Aaron the high priest, and Nahshon led the tribe of Judah — one of only three names marked out between Judah and David.
- Given — the names read as a lesson. Nahshon means one who discerns, and he is the son of "the people of the Liberal Giver," so that faith gains its foresight from free grace.
- Crossing — Nahshon closes the five generations of Egypt and the wilderness. Salmon opens the five in the land, ending with David the king.
- Widening — Salmon married Rahab. Grace carried a Canaanite prostitute into the royal line of David, and of David's greater Son.
and Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed,
Three names pass by in half a line — Salmon, Boaz, Obed — and most readers skim them. Yet these three names carry Israel's story from the time of the judges to the throne of David. Commentators read them as quiet proof that God was at work the whole time.
Each name carries a history from elsewhere in Scripture. One writer collects the details, and the one about Salmon is a surprise:
Salmon (Salma), son of Nahshon, married Rahab the prostitute, and was the father of Boaz (Matt. 1:5). Salmon was probably one of the two men Joshua sent secretly to Jericho and the area around it, the two who stayed in Rahab's house (Joshua 2).
The list leaves out a name you would expect and keeps another. The same writer notes that these names are not always the obvious ones:
The names in it are not always those of the eldest son in the family. David himself, for example, was the seventh son of Jesse. The line of descent from Perez was decreed to end with the Messiah, so Jehovah watched over it all the way. Elimelech's name does not appear in the list, but Boaz's does, the son of Salmon. This choice shows the religious value of Ruth's marriage and of the buying back of the inheritance — and perhaps the happy couple themselves never knew it.
The name given to Ruth's child points beyond the baby who carried it:
Obed means servant. He was the son of wealthy Boaz, and by his name at least — and perhaps also by an obedient and devoted life — he bore a quiet witness. He witnessed to his coming grandson David, who "served the purpose of God in his own generation" (Acts 13:36). He witnessed further, to David's Son and David's Lord, Whose service to God nothing can match… But what a shining honour for the son of a Moabite woman, to be linked with Jehovah's Anointed in His family line!
The name also fits the response this recovery called for:
They all belonged to God. They were all connected with God's people. How right it was that this little boy, with this name, should picture the spirit of worship and praise — the response to God for the mercy that brought such a recovery.
Two women stand behind these names, and neither one was an Israelite. One writer draws out what that means:
Ruth was a loving woman, and yet to a Jew she came from a source that was especially hateful. She was a Moabite woman, and so the law barred her from entering the assembly of the Lord down to the tenth generation… This gave an even 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 gentle daughter of Moab, not only into the nation, but into the direct line the Messiah would come from.
The list does not stop at Obed. It runs on to one final name:
This line comes in to show that God had another kind of manhood in view, a line that would reach its high point in the Beloved, in David. His name, as you know, means Beloved. Despite all man's breakdown, despite all man's failure, despite all man's sin, God reaches this wonderful point: He brings in David, a man after His own heart.
And the reach of that line does not stop with David either:
In David of Bethlehem the throne was established, and in David's Son it will stand for ever… for out of Bethlehem-Ephrathah has come Ruth's descendant, according to the flesh, Who will be Ruler of His people Israel.
- Salmon — an outsider married in. His wife was Rahab of Jericho, so grace to an outsider stands at the head of these three names before Ruth appears.
- Boaz — the redeemer honoured. The list drops Elimelech's name and keeps Boaz's, showing the value of Ruth's marriage and of the inheritance he bought back.
- Obed — the servant born. His name means servant, and it points ahead to David, who served the purpose of God in his own generation, and on to David's Lord.
- David — the Beloved reached. After all of man's failure, God arrives at the name that means Beloved, and the throne stands in him.
- The line — never dropped. Jehovah watched over every step, and perhaps the couple at the centre of it never knew what they were building.
and Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
The book of Ruth ends not with the wedding or the baby, but with a list of names running down to one man. Why does a village love story finish as a royal pedigree?
The name that closes the verse also closes the book. It appears here for the first time in Scripture:
The beautiful little book of Ruth shows that God has endless resources of grace. They are available even to someone like Ruth the Moabite, who had no claim at all on His blessing for His people (Nehemiah 13:1). Notice the last word of the book — DAVID. The name "David" will appear in the Scriptures some hundreds of times, but this is its first appearance, and it points to God's resource — His beloved! God reaches His end in Christ — "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." That blessed One holds everything connected with His eternal glory, and He meets every need of men — David's Son and David's Lord.
The list settles which tribe the throne belongs to, and it points the reader on to the next books of the Bible:
This table of lineage, given without comment, is important. It forms plain proof that David descended from the tribe of Judah. On his deathbed Jacob promised and prophesied by inspiration that the sceptre and the lawgiver in Israel would belong to that tribe (Gen. 49). This short list of names is enough on its own to overturn every rival claim by Ephraim or Benjamin to the throne. So it connects the Book of Ruth with the histories that follow in the Books of Samuel: king Saul of Gibeah in Benjamin, and king David of Bethlehem in Judah.
The names were not picked the way a family would pick them:
The names given are not always those of the eldest in the family. David himself, for instance, was the seventh son of Jesse (1 Chron. 2:15). God had decreed that the line of descent from Pherez would end with the Messiah, so Jehovah watched over it all the way. Elimelech's name does not appear in the list, but Boaz the son of Salmon does. This choice shows the religious value of Ruth's marriage and the redemption of the inheritance — a value the happy couple themselves perhaps knew nothing about.
Obed's mother came from Moab. The same names reappear in Matthew's opening chapter, and a commentator there shows how that would sound to a Jewish reader:
Could anyone think Rahab came into the line at some distant time? No: "and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth." Ruth, loving as she was, came from a source a Jew found especially offensive. She was a Moabite, forbidden by the law to enter the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation. People loathed even the Edomite or the Egyptian less than this, and their children could enter in the third generation (Deut. 23:3-8). So here was a still deeper testimony that grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles.
This short list reaches far past one household:
The Book closes with a short genealogy of ten names ending with David the King. In the opening chapter of the New Testament these ten names have an honoured place in the genealogy of the King of kings. But there is one difference. The Spirit of God has added four women to these names — one of them Ruth the Moabite. With each of these women there is a story of failure and shame. That only makes it clear that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." So historically the Book of Ruth is the record of the grace of God. Thirteen centuries before the King came, that grace was securing the line by which He was to come.
One writer reads the final name as a signpost, not a destination:
The further evil spreads, the more the history of grace grows. It moves on unstoppably until it reaches its appointed purpose. Grace begins in the heart of God and centres in the person of the Lord Jesus. This is why the Book of Ruth ends with the prophetic mention of Him who is the Root and Offspring of David, the glorious Redeemer promised to Israel.
- Grace begins it. The book closes on a name. God had endless resources of grace for a Moabite woman with no claim on Him.
- Grace guards the line. Jehovah watched over the ten names, skipping eldest sons and passing over Elimelech. That line had to end with the Messiah.
- Grace proves the title. The pedigree proves David came from Judah, the tribe holding the sceptre. It settles every rival claim.
- Grace reaches outsiders. A Moabite, shut out by the law to the tenth generation, stands in the royal line. Grace would go out and bless the very worst of the Gentiles.
- Grace ends in Christ. David is where the book stops and where the story points on — to God's beloved, David's Son and David's Lord.