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.