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.