We left off in Ruth 4 where Boaz has contracted to marry Ruth in order to continue her departed husband’s lineage, and to redeem Elimelech’s property for Naomi. We saw that a nearer kinsman had been willing to redeem the property when he thought there was some profit in it for him. But when he realized that he would also have to raise up an heir to inherit the dead husband’s property instead of himself getting it, he lost all interest in the deal.
Which was perfectly fine with Ruth and Boaz, since they had come to appreciate each other as kindred spirits. Boaz did for love what the other would have only done for money.
And now the assembled crowd that has witnessed this drama are praising and celebrating how things have turned out for Ruth and Boaz – and especially for their widowed friend Naomi.
And at the end of verse 11, they told Boaz – be famous in Bethlehem.
11 And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem:
All the people gathered around that day had a sense of what was going on. No one objected that Ruth as a Moabite couldn’t marry Boaz. Why? Because as Boaz himself had explained back in Ruth 3:11, all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. They understood that she was no typical Moabite. They knew of her faith in the Lord God of Israel. They knew that a woman like this would build the house of Israel. Look at what they said: the Lord make her like Rachel and like Leah – both former Gentile women who did build the house of Israel. They built it with their character. They built it as they recited the Shema to their nursing infants so that Jewish children literally absorbed the Words of God with their mothers’ milk. And they built it physically as the Lord opened their wombs to bring new little Israelite sons and daughters into the growing nation. Remember that at one time or another both Rachel and Leah’s wombs were shut up by the Lord so that they could not bear – just as Ruth’s had been back in Moab.
And the people said to Boaz, do thou worthily... and be famous. Boaz had done a worthy deed – literally, in the sense that it had just cost him a serious portion of his net worth. But the people are praying that God will now enable him to do worthily enough to more than make it back up to him.
And they said, be famous. Had Boaz not performed this worthy deed, we would have known no more of him than of the nearer kinsman who was unwilling to make the sacrifice. But now his name and his deed are recorded in the everlasting Word of God. All because he was willing to look past the fact that Ruth was a stranger from the cursed land of Moab. We are all saved from the wrath of the law by faith in God’s amazing grace.
They said, do thou worthily in Ephratah. As we mentioned earlier in our study of Ruth, Ephratah was the original name of this town before the Israelites took it over and renamed it Bethlehem. The name Ephratah means “fruitful”, apparently because it was fertile for agriculture, as reflected in the new Hebrew name Bethlehem – “house of bread”. They are praying for Boaz to be fruitful in the fruitful place as a reward for his generosity toward Naomi and Ruth.
Now, without looking back, does anyone remember the name of Ruth’s dead husband whose lineage is going to be preserved? If not, then don’t feel bad, because his name is only found four times in this book, while Boaz’ name is found 20 times. And his name is never found again in any other place in the Bible, while Boaz’ name is mentioned in other books in both Testaments. So between Boaz and Mahlon, it’s obvious that Boaz has certainly become the more famous of the two!
But now, this brings up a question. Verse 10 says that Boaz is doing this to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren. But in every genealogy – at the end of this chapter, in I Chronicles 2, in Matthew 1 and in Luke 3 – the child is always listed as the son of Boaz, never Mahlon.
There appear to be a couple of factors here that have been suggested by both Jewish and Christian theologians.
One is that this was not an actual levirate marriage, because Boaz was not Mahlon’s actual brother. And that’s not a minor technicality – it’s a legitimate point. As we just saw earlier in the chapter, the nearer kinsman got off Scott free from the marriage which an actual brother could not have done. For anyone who was not a brother, helping the childless widow was completely voluntary.
So, Boaz could voluntarily redeem the property for Naomi, but would not be bound to let the firstborn carry on Mahlon’s lineage.
In fact, back in Genesis 38, we see the same kind of thing where Tamar bore a child through Judah, but Judah was not the brother of Er, Tamar’s deceased husband. And Pharez forever after is called the child of Judah, never Er. And here in Ruth 4:12, the people bring up that very case.
Another factor is that it appears Boaz had never married, or if he had, his wife had never borne him an heir either. Thus, Obed was his own firstborn as much as he was Mahlon’s – in fact, even more so. So Boaz’ would have as much a right for the child to carry on his name as Mahlon did – and more so.
But now, the difficulty remains that Boaz had announced to the whole city that he was doing this to raise up the name of Mahlon and continue his lineage. So while it may have been voluntary in theory, how does he get by with apparently breaking his word to Naomi and Ruth in front of the whole village?
The most logical view would seem to be that Naomi and Ruth let him off the hook – they wanted his name to be child’s lineage. Boaz was recognized earlier as a mighty man of valor. He seems to have greater integrity than the men who had misled the family into disaster. So we could suppose that they urged him to give the child a better lineage to live up to.
Of course, that is speculation, but if anyone else has a better answer...
12 And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.
Judah was one of the twelve sons of Israel, or Jacob. Judah is the father of the tribe named for him. Why are the people praying that Boaz’ house will be like that of Pharez, the son of Judah? Probably because Boaz’ situation very closely parallels that of Judah and Pharez.
In Genesis 38:6 and following, Judah gave Er, his firstborn son, a wife named Tamar. But the firstborn son died without a child, and so Judah ordered his next son, Onan, to marry Tamar and give her a child. From this, we see that the custom of Levirate marriage was practiced in that ancient culture long before God gave it as a law through Moses.
But the second son also died without an heir, and that left Judah with only one remaining son, Shelah, and he was still a child. So Judah told Tamar, his widowed daughter in law, to return to her father’s house under his care until the child was grown, and then Tamar would be given to Shelah.
But apparently Judah began having second thoughts about giving Tamar to Shelah. Maybe he thought she was jinxed, some kind of “black widow” – whoever married her died childless. Maybe it was Shelah who had doubts about it. Whatever the reason, the nearer kinsman who was supposed to raise an heir to his brother wasn’t doing it – just as the nearer kinsman in Ruth’s story refused to. And so, just as Ruth had taken matters into her own hands to move things along, so had Tamar – but in a dramatically different way.
When Tamar saw that she was not going to be given to Shelah, she disguised herself as a harlot, and waited along a roadside where she knew that Judah would pass by. Judah’s wife had died some time earlier, and seeing what he thought was a harlot, he turned into her tent. He offered to send her a sheep from his flock for a moment of pleasure. She said he’d have to leave her some collateral to hold until the sheep arrived. He agreed to leave her his signet ring, his bracelets and his staff. And so Tamar conceived by the next nearest kinsman, a man old enough to be her father, after her husband and his brother had died – just as Ruth would eventually do.
When Judah reached his flock, he sent a servant to carry a sheep to the harlot and recover his signet, bracelets and staff. But when the servant arrived, the harlot was nowhere to be found. So Judah decided to forget the matter – and he did... for three months. But then word arrived that his widowed daughter in law, Tamar, had committed fornication and was with child.
Judah’s immediate reaction was, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. But when they brought her forth, Tamar sent the signet, bracelets and staff to Judah saying, By the man who owns these am I with child. “Do they look familiar to you, Judah?” Of course, Judah recognized them immediately, and he was ashamed. He said, She hath been more righteous than I, because I gave her not to Shelah my son.
Now, of course, Ruth and Boaz did not misbehave as Judah and Tamar did – although there are some who believe that crafty old Naomi had just such a scheme in mind when she sent Ruth to the threshing floor that night – consummate the deal first, then ask forgiveness rather than permission. Conceive the child at any cost. And desperation could indeed have driven her to just such a plot. In fact, she could’ve even gotten the idea from old Tamar in the first place!
But despite whatever Naomi was thinking, Ruth and Boaz acted honorably. Judah and Tamar, by contrast, have committed adultery and incest.
Now, obviously two wrongs don’t make a right. But out of Judah’s sin and Tamar’s sin, God’s grace was able to build the house of Judah through the twin sons she bore – Pharez the elder, and Zarah the second.
Here was a woman whose sin had sentenced her to burn, just as the Moabites who were all facing the judgment of hell – just as people in our day who go through life without Christ. But the grace of God that delivered Ruth and made her an ancestress of the Messiah also delivered Tamar and made her an ancestress of Him as well. No wonder the people are all saying, let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah.
By the way, just as a reminder, I Timothy 5:3 and following says that children, grandchildren, nephews (the extended family) are still responsible to care for their aged and impoverished widows. But now if they have no biological family to help them, they are to be sustained by their spiritual family – the church. So we no longer practice levirate marriage.
13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.
It says, The Lord gave her conception – highlighting that it was of the Lord that she had not conceived back in Moab. Of course, had she done so then, there would have been no need for her to have married Boaz now. What must have seemed like a curse at the time turned out to be orchestrated of God for their good. Trusting God means remaining loyal to Him especially when we cannot see how the end turns out.
And she bare a son. A baby changes everything! Ruth has a future and a hope. Naomi has a future and a hope. Boaz will probably pass off the scene in not too many more years, but he’s forever after remembered as the child’s father. In every genealogy that mentions the child, it lists his father as Boaz.
And through this lineage, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given – and even though we may pass off the scene in a few years, we all can have a future and a hope through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.
These would be the very same women that Naomi had been bitterly complaining to in the beginning when she first returned from Moab. She said back in Ruth 1:21, I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. But now these same women are telling her that the Lord has never left her empty. He has given her a kinsman.
There is some debate as to whether the kinsman they are meaning is Boaz or the baby. Since Boaz has been serving as their redeeming kinsman throughout most of the book, some people say that he is who they mean. But in this verse, they say that the Lord hath not left thee this day – the day that the child was born – without a kinsman. And the words that follow talk about him caring for her in her old age – hardly something Boaz could wait around to do. The child is the kinsman who has just made the difference for these otherwise hopeless widows.
And the women pray that his name may be famous in Israel. The child’s name is Obed – not one of the better known Bible characters. But through him will come David the King, one of the most famous names in all the Bible. And through him will come Jesus Christ, by far the most famous Man in the history of the world.
15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.
How was Obed a restorer of Naomi’s life? Well, in a figurative sense he restored her because without an heir she had felt like her life was over. Remember that years earlier she had left Bethlehem in the middle of a famine feeling like they didn’t have anything to live for in Israel at that point. And yet, compared to how much less she had when she returned, back in Ruth 1:21 she described it as having left full and returned empty. She said, “we didn’t realize it when the famine was going on, but we were actually full then; but returning without my husband and sons really showed me what true emptiness was like!” If she felt like she had nothing to live for before, that feeling would have been magnified manyfold when she came back.
But the birth of a baby boy changed everything. Elimelech’s estate will not be absorbed by another. Naomi has a hope for the future. Life will go on – it has been restored by this tiny child.
But Obed restores Naomi’s hope literally in the next phrase – and a nourisher of thine old age. Obed will grow up to love Naomi and care for her when she is too old to care for herself – just as Naomi does for the infant when he is tiny. This is exactly what I Timothy 5:4 means when it says that children ought to requite their parents. It means to repay their care in kind. Grown children are to care for their aging parents who cannot care for themselves, just as they once did when their children were first born.
The villagers acknowledge that all of this was made possible because thy daughter in law which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. Ruth gave Naomi more love than seven sons would have.
You have to ask yourself, would they have been praising Ruth in such glowing terms if she and Boaz had taken a shortcut the night before?
16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.
Naomi had told her daughter in laws back in chapter 1 that she was too old to have any more children. So one might wonder how she could nurse her grandchild a year later. But the Hebrew word for nurse here is “aman”, and it means to foster as a parent. The same word is used where Isaiah 49:23 says, kings shall be thy nursing fathers. So obviously, the word does not mean to literally suckle a child. That word is “yawnaq”, and it’s used in Exodus 2:7 when Pharaoh’s daughter sends for a Hebrew woman to come nurse the infant Moses whom she has drawn out of the Nile. So Naomi takes the child and lays it in her bosom to adopt as her foster child.
17 And the women her neighbors 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.
Ruth’s baby is called a son born to Naomi. The need for this child was far more urgent for Naomi, who was past child bearing, than it was for Ruth who was still young and fertile.
The women name the child Obed, short for Obadiah, a worshipper (or servant) of the Lord. Obed means “worshipper” or “servant” – in anticipation of the honor and service he was expected to give to Naomi.
Obed eventually becomes the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Years later, when David is fleeing from King Saul, he needs a safe haven for his own aging parents so that Saul cannot use them against him. Who can he trust them with? In I Samuel 22:3-4, He takes them to the king of Moab, presumably because his father Jesse’s ancestress was Ruth the Moabitess.
This brings us to the end of the chapter and the end of the book where it closes with a genealogy. Look at verses 18 to 22:
Now these are the generations of Pharez: (the Pharez mentioned in verse 12 – his story is recorded in Genesis 38) Pharez begat Hezron, And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, And Salmon, (who invades Canaan with Joshua and eventually marries Rahab the harlot), begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
The genealogy at the end of this book is to show that David is a direct descendent of Judah, through whom the Messianic line was foretold. These verses, probably penned by the prophet Samuel, were very important because I Samuel had no genealogy connecting Judah, the kingly tribe and the father of Pharez, to David, God’s chosen dynasty. Of course, I Chronicles would provide such a genealogy 500 years later, but from the time of Samuel until well after the return from Babylonian Captivity, this genealogy at the end of Ruth was the only thing authoritatively showing David’s right to reign on Judah’s throne.
Especially during the civil war between Judah and the other tribes after the death of Saul, this genealogy would have strongly supported David’s claim to the throne over Ishbosheth’s, the son of King Saul. The strength of Ishbosheth’s claim was that his father had actually been Israel’s first king. The strength of David’s was that his tribe, Judah, was always meant to provide the nation’s kings. David’s genealogy made a straight line back to Judah.
Finally, consider this: in David’s ancestry is Rahab, a Canaanite. Ruth is a Moabitess. Solomon’s mother Bathsheba is a Hittite, and in I Kings 14:21, he marries an Ammonite, Maachah, by whom the next King, Rehoboam is born. Canaanite, Moabite, Hittite, Ammonite – the point being that Jesus had a lot of Gentile blood in His ancestry! He came as a Messiah for all nations.
You know, the surrounding culture in which this story is set was a time of terrible apostasy when most of the nation degenerated into the culture of the Canaanites. Yet despite the corruption of the world around them, here was a family of faithful followers (descended from Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, no less) who remained true to the God of Israel. They passed a godly legacy down the generations to Jesse and to his son David who was known ever afterwards as a man after God’s own heart. What a privilege to receive a godly heritage like David did! What a hope any sinner can have to found a godly legacy like Rahab did!
And it all begins when any sinner, red or yellow, black or white, repents and turns to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and salvation. He died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
Now, before we finish, let’s address a minor difficulty concerning this genealogy. From Salmon, who marries Rahab (Matthew 1:5) during the first generation to enter the Promised Land, to David, who is anointed king by Samuel, the last of the judges (I Samuel 7:15) is only five generations: Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.
But Acts 13:20 says that the times of the judges was 450 years. If that covered only five generations, then each of these fathers would have averaged being 90 years old when they fathered the next child! Now, for Abraham and Sarah (at similar ages), that was considered miraculous. And certainly if a miraculous explanation was all we had, then hey – the Lord’s hand is not shortened!
But consider this. There are other genealogies covering the 450 years of the times of the judges that include many more generations.
For example, I Chronicles 6:33-37 lists Heman who lived in the time of David (according to I Chronicles 15:16-17) and goes backward to Korah in the generation after Moses (Exodus 6:16), and it lists 18 generations between them – which averages 25 years from one generation to the next.
So, it seems biblically plausible that the five-generation genealogy from Salmon to David employs some “telescoping.” That’s the term for condensing long and tedious genealogies down to the most relevant ancestors to get to the point. And, as we’ve already mentioned, the point here is to connect David to the kingly tribe of Judah.
So between Salmon and Boaz, there seem to be about a dozen generations where "begat" means to be an ancestor of, or where "son" means to be a descendant of.
But when it comes to the spiritual birth, there is no telescoping. Everyone who is born again is a direct child of God the Father. He has no grandchildren!
Have you been born of Him yet? If not, then wherever you are, why not just call out to God something like this:
“God, be merciful to me, a sinner; I believe Christ died for my sins on the cross; I believe He rose to give me victory over death; I trust His sacrifice to pay for my pardon; I repent of my sins; I receive Your forgiveness by faith. I trust Your grace to deliver my soul on the judgment day – Amen!
