Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ruth 4:13
So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
Verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth] The law of Moses had prohibited the Moabites, even to the tenth generation, from entering into the congregation of the Lord; but this law, the Jews think, did not extend to women; and even if it had, Ruth’s might be considered an exempt case, as she had been already incorporated into the family by marriage; and left her own country, people, and gods, to become a proselyte to the true God in the land of Israel.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Boaz took Ruth; which he might do, though she was a Moabite, because the prohibition against marrying such is to be restrained to those who continue in the heathenish estate, as is evident from the reason of it; whereas Ruth was a sincere proselyte and convert to the God and faith of Israel.
He went in unto her, i.e. had conjugal converse with her. See Gen 6:4.
Conception, i.e. strength to conceive and retain seed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife,…. Without any other rites or ceremonies than what are here expressed; for as yet the rites and ceremonies now in use with the Jews o, in marriages had not obtained: and when he went in unto her; which is a modest expression of the conjugal duty performed him:
the Lord gave her conception; for this is of God, let the circumstance of the person, as to age, be as it may:
and she bare a son; at the year’s end, as Josephus p relates,
o Vid. Buxtorf. Synagog. Jud. c. 39. Leo Modena’s History of the Rites of the present Jews, part 4. c. 3. p Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 4.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This blessing began very speedily to be fulfilled. When Boaz had married Ruth, Jehovah gave her conception, and she bare a son.
Rth 4:14 At his birth the women said to Naomi, “ Blessed be the Lord, who hath not let a redeemer be wanting to thee to-day. ” This redeemer was not Boaz, but the son just born. They called him a redeemer of Naomi, not because he would one day redeem the whole of Naomi’s possessions ( Carpzov, Rosenmller, etc.), but because as the son of Ruth he was also the son of Naomi (Rth 4:17), and as such would take away the reproach of childlessness from her, would comfort her, and tend her in her old age, and thereby become her true gol, i.e., her deliverer ( Bertheau). “ And let his name be named in Israel, ” i.e., let the boy acquire a celebrated name, one often mentioned in Israel.
Rth 4:15 “ And may the boy come to thee a refresher of the soul, and a nourisher of thine old age; for thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee (who hath left her family, her home, and her gods, out of love to thee), hath born him; she is better to thee than seven sons.” Seven, as the number of the works of God, is used to denote a large number of sons of a mother whom God has richly blessed with children (vid., 1Sa 2:5). A mother of so many sons was to be congratulated, inasmuch as she not only possessed in these sons a powerful support to her old age, but had the prospect of the permanent continuance of her family. Naomi, however, had a still more valuable treasure in her mother-in-law, inasmuch as through her the loss of her own sons had been supplied in her old age, and the prospect was now presented to her of becoming in her childless old age the tribe-mother of a numerous and flourishing family.
Rth 4:16 Naomi therefore adopted this grandson as her own child; she took the boy into her bosom, and became his nurse.
Rth 4:17 And the neighbours said, “ A son is born to Naomi,” and gave him the name of Obed. This name was given to the boy (the context suggests this) evidently with reference to what he was to become to his grandmother. Obed, therefore, does not mean “servant of Jehovah” ( Targum), but “ the serving one,” as one who lived entirely for his grandmother, and would take care of her, and rejoice her heat ( O. v. Gerlach, after Josephus, Ant. v. 9, 4). The last words of Rth 4:17, “ he is the father of Jesse, the father of David, ” show the object which the author kept in view in writing down these events, or composing the book itself. This conjecture is raised into a certainty by the genealogy which follows, and with which the book closes.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Pedigree of David; Naomi Comforted in Her Grandson. | B. C. 1312. |
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. 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. 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. 16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. 17 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. 18 Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, 19 And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, 20 And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, 21 And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, 22 And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
Here is, I. Ruth a wife. Boaz took her, with the usual solemnities, to his house, and she became his wife (v. 13), all the city, no doubt, congratulating the preferment of a virtuous woman, purely for her virtues. We have reason to think that Orpah, who returned from Naomi to her people and her gods, was never half so well preferred as Ruth was. He that forsakes all for Christ shall find more than all with him; it shall be recompensed a hundred-fold in this present time. Now Orpah wished she had gone with Naomi too; but she, like the other kinsman, stood in her own light. Boaz had prayed that this pious proselyte might receive a full reward of her courage and constancy from the God of Israel, under whose wings she had come to trust; and now he became an instrument of that kindness, which was an answer to his prayer, and helped to make his own words good. Now she had the command of those servants with whom she had associated and of those fields in which she had gleaned. Thus sometimes God raiseth up the poor out of the dust, to set them with princes,Psa 113:7; Psa 113:8.
II. Ruth a mother: The Lord gave her conception; for the fruit of the womb is his reward, Ps. cxxvii. 3. It is one of the keys he hath in his hand; and he sometimes makes the barren woman that had been long so to be a joyful mother of children,Psa 113:9; Isa 54:1.
III. Ruth still a daughter-in-law, and the same that she always was, to Naomi, who was so far from being forgotten that she was a principal sharer in these new joys. The good women that were at the labour when this child was born congratulated Naomi upon it more than either Boaz or Ruth, because she was the match-maker, and it was the family of her husband that was hereby built up. See here, as before, what an air of devotion there was then even in the common expressions of civility among the Israelites. Prayer to God attended the birth of the child. What a pity it is that such pious language should either be disused among Christians or degenerate into a formality. “Blessed be the Lord that has sent thee this grandson,” Rth 4:14; Rth 4:15. 1. Who was the preserver of the name of her family, and who, they hoped, would be famous, because his father was so. 2. Who would be hereafter dutiful and kind to her, so they hoped, because his mother was so. If he would but take after her, he would be a comfort to his aged grandmother, a restorer of her life, and, if there should be occasion, would have wherewithal to be the nourisher of her old age. It is a great comfort to those that are going into years to see any of those that descend from them growing up, that are likely, by the blessing of God, to be a stay and support to them, when the years come wherein they will need such, and of which they will say they have no pleasure in them. Observe, They say of Ruth that she loved Naomi, and therefore was better to her than seven sons. See how God in his providence sometimes makes up the want and loss of those relations from whom we expected most comfort in those from whom we expected least. The bonds of love prove stronger than those of nature, and there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother; so here there was a daughter-in-law better than an own child. See what wisdom and grace will do. Now here, (1.) The child is named by the neighbours, v. 17. The good women would have it called Obed, a servant, either in remembrance of the meanness and poverty of the mother or in prospect of his being hereafter a servant, and very serviceable, to his grandmother. It is no dishonour to those that are ever so well born to be servants to God, their friends, and their generation. The motto of the princes of Wales is Ich dien–I serve. (2.) The child is nursed by the grandmother, that is, dry-nursed, when the mother had weaned him from the breast, v. 16. She laid it in her bosom, in token of her tender affection to it and care of it. Grandmothers are often the most fond.
IV. Ruth is hereby brought in among the ancestors of David and Christ, which was the greatest honour. The genealogy is here drawn from Pharez, through Boaz and Obed, to David, and so leads towards the Messiah, and therefore it is not an endless genealogy.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
David’s Ancestry, vs. 13-22
So Boaz and Ruth were married, and the Lord blessed the marriage by giving them a child, a son. According to the legal course he was counted the heir of Elimelech, and thus legally the grandson of Naomi. The neighbors of Naomi rejoiced with her in the birth of her grandson. They praised the Lord as being very good to Naomi in giving her a kinsman redeemer, though she might not ordinarily expected it. No longer should she be Mara (bitter), but she could be Naomi (pleasant) again. The little baby would give her something to live for and would be her provider in her old age.
The women also praised Ruth to Naomi, as a daughter who loved her so dearly. They estimated that such a daughter in law was more to be esteemed then seven sons. Naomi took the baby into her arms and cuddled it and became its nurse, to care for its needs, to be a real “granny” to him. So the news was spread abroad, “A son is born to Naomi.” The women gave the baby his name, Obed, which means “serving,” for he would serve the aging Naomi.
The closing verses of the chapter, and the Book of Ruth, give the genealogy of Pharez, the son of the patriarch Judah, down to King David. It includes several interesting names. Pharez himself was the illegitimate son of Judah by incest with his daughter in law, Tamar, who portrayed herself as a harlot to him because he would not carry through his promise concerning the levirate marriage of his younger son. Pharez went down into Egypt with Jacob’s family (see Genesis, chapter 38, and Gen 46:12). Hezron, Ram, Amminadab all lived and died in Egypt. The Israelites came back to Canaan in the generation of Nahshon, and Salmon was an adult soldier in the army of Joshua when Jericho fell. It was Salmon who married Rahab, who had been a harlot (see Mat 1:5), and they were the parents of Boaz. The Bible implies that the men of this line lived exceptionally long lives (see 1Sa 17:12).
It is interesting to note that the line of Pharez reached the tenth generation in David. De 23:2 barred the descendants of an illegitimate son from the privileges of the congregation unto the tenth generation. While there is no indication elsewhere in the Scriptures that this was applied to the descendants of Pharez, yet the Lord was not ready for a king in Israel until David, when the line through which would come the Messianic King, had fulfilled the prohibition.
Some lessons: 1) When promises have been made one should be prompt to keep them; 2) honest, godly character demonstrated in a person will bring that person the commendation of others; 3) Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer, who provided our redemption when we were without hope; 4) God can turn our bitterness to happiness if we will let Him; 5) the Lord holds sway over the affairs of men and will work out His own will, even without our recognizing it.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Ruth Bares a Son. 4:13-16
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.
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.
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 borne him,
16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.
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.
11.
Why was Naomi congratulated? Rth. 4:14
Her family was not extinct. She had suffered severe losses in the deaths of Elimelech, her husband, and Mahlon and Chilion, her two sons. When she came back to Bethlehem, she felt God had dealt harshly with her. She even asked the people not to call her Naomi any more. Now her fortunes were changed. She indeed deserved the name, Naomi. She was blessed and happy. The women of the community prayed for Gods richest blessings to be upon Naomi.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
MARRIAGE OF BOAZ AND RUTH, AND BIRTH OF OBED, Rth 4:13-17.
13. Boaz took Ruth Whatever scruples a pious Hebrew might have had about marriage with a Moabitess, Boaz could have had none in this case, inasmuch as Ruth was the widow of an Israelite, and had left her native land and kindred to become a proselyte to the Hebrew faith. Compare note on Rth 1:4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in unto her, and YHWH gave her conception, and she bore a son.’
The consequence of what had happened was that Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife, and as a result of his having impregnated her ‘YHWH gave her conception’, and she bore a son. This is the second time that it has been made clear that YHWH was with Ruth, and that the son to be born was of His doing (compare Rth 4:12). It made clear that YHWH had accepted her, a Moabitess, as a true member of the covenant.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rth 4:13-22
The Completion of the Blessing.
13So Boaz took Ruth, and she was [became] his wife: and when [omit: when] he went in unto her, [and] the Lord [Jehovah] gave her conception, and she bare a son. 14And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord [Jehovah], which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman [redeemer], that his name may be [and may his name be] famous in Israel. 15And he shall [may he] be unto thee a restorer of thy life [soul], and a nourisher [support]18 of thine old age: for thy daughter-in-law, 16which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. 17And 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.
18Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, and 19Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Aminadab, 20and Aminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon [Salmah],19 21and Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, 22and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[1 Rth 4:15.Lit. and may he support thine old age. On the form of (from ), cf. Ges. 55, 4; on its construction after , which here however has the force of the jussive (optative) through its connection with the preceding verb, Ges. 132, 3, Rem. 1.On the forms and , cf. Ges. 59, Rem. 3.Tr.]
[2 Rth 4:20.Salmah ( or *, 1Ch 2:11) appears in Rth 4:21 as Salmon, which many MSS. read here also. Originally, the name was probably used indiscriminately either with the termination * or cf. Ges. 84, 15). By detrition of the , became .Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND DOCTRINAL
Rth 4:13. And she brought forth a son. With this happy event the last shadows disappear from the checkered lives of the two women. The fears of superstition are shown to have been groundless. Sorrow in Moab has been changed into happiness in Israel. The reward of love has begun, and Jehovah mercifully owns the daughter of Moab, who has left home and native land for his peoples sake. Great are the joys which surround the cradle of the child of such parents as Boaz and Ruth. The father of Nero is said to have made the terrible exclamation: What shall come of a son who has me for his father and Agrippina for his mother! But here, where love had been married to piety, humility to heroism, innocence to believing insight, everybody must look for a future of blessings. A child of Ruth and Boaz had no need of goddesses and fairies to come to its cradle, in order, according to popular legends, to bring wealth and good wishes. The blessing of the Almighty God, who locks not at the person, but at the heart, has spread out its wings over the child.
Rth 4:14. And the women said unto Naomi. What a difference between the beginning and the end of Naomis life in Israel since her return! When she came back, poor and lonely, where were the women and neighbors, who ought to have comforted, supported, and stood by her in her necessity? Nothing is heard of them. Nobody was with her but Ruth. But now they appear with their good wishes for Naomi and praises to God; for adversity has vanished. Ruth is no longer the poor gleaner, who painfully gathers a living for her mother, but the happy wife of Boaz. A new name has been raised up for the inheritance of Elimelech.
Who hath not left a redeemer to be wanting to thee this day. It is one of the peculiar beauties of our narrative that its last words are almost wholly devoted to Naomi (Rth 4:14-18). And justly so; for it was Naomi who by her exemplary life in Moab had been the instructress of Ruth. For her sake, the noble woman had come to Israel. Upon her, affliction had fallen most severely (Rth 1:13), bereaving her of both husband and children. Against her, the hand of Jehovah had gone forth, so that she bade acquaintances to call her, not Naomi, but Mara. Moreover, a heart-union existed between herself and Ruth, such as is not often to be found between even natural mother and daughter. The happiness of Ruth would have been her happiness also, even if no national usages and habits had come in to make it such. How tender and delicate is the feeling which these usages and habits set forth, of the sacred and indissoluble character of the marriage bond. And yet modern self-conceitthat, and not Christian self-knowledgeperpetually talks of the inferiority of womans position under the old covenant! Boaz had married Ruth, as a blood-relative of her former husband, in order to raise up the name of the latter upon his inheritance. The childless widow did not, as happens so often among us, leave the family of her deceased husband, as if she had never become a member of it. The blood-relative obtains a son by her, and the birth of this son becomes an occasion for congratulations to the mother of the former husband. The child borne by Ruth to Boaz as a blood-relative, although not the nearest, of Naomis husband, is called by the women the goel of Naomi, and they praise God that he has not left Naomi without him. There is, no doubt, a legal ground for this. For the child inherits the estate of Elimelech, because its mother was formerly the wife of his son, and with this estate the life of Naomi also is connected. Not Boaz, who has redeemed the inheritance, but the child for whom he redeemed it, is the real goel of Naomithe person, that is, in whom her sinking house again raises itself; for he is the son of her sons wife, albeit by another husband. He is the grandson of her family, though not of her blood. Ruths goel was Boaz, but Naomis the son of Ruth; for Ruth lives in the house of Boaz, but Naomi in that of the child, which belongs to him by virtue of his birth from Ruth. These are practical definitions of the leviratical law; but how thoroughly moral the views on which they rest! how close the sympathy and brotherhood they seek to establish, and how indissoluble the marriage covenant which they presuppose!
Undoubtedly, the most moral law can become torpid, and receive only an external fulfillment or even be evaded. Laws are living and active among a people only so long as the spirit that gave them, being continues to live. The conduct of the unknown blood-relative has sufficiently shown, that the law alone could have afforded no help to Ruth and Naomi. The whole history of Naomi in Israel, after her return from Moab and up to the intervention of Boaz, testifies to the inability of the letter of the law to avert misery and distress. Boaz followed, not the letter of the law, but its spirit; and hence did more than the letter demanded. In the persons of those with whom our narrative is mainly concerned, the doctrine verifies itself that there is no law so strong as the law of love. It is this doctrine which the women also have come to recognize when they say to Naomi:
Rth 4:15. For thy daughter-in-law, who loveth thee, and who is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him. The child, say the women, shall refresh thy soul,the soul , animus, of Naomi was bowed down with sorrow, the child will restore () her courage,and support thy old age; and this, they add, not because the law makes him heir to the estate of his mothers family, but because Ruth has borne him. The revivication of Naomis happiness through the birth of this child, was more securely guaranteed by the love of Ruth, than by friendship and blood-relationship. True, Naomi herself is childless; but seven sons could not have done for her what Ruth did. The women acknowledge now how far short the legal friendship of Israel towards Naomi has fallen, in comparison with the self-sacrifice of the daughter of Moab. And thus there comes to view here so much the more plainly, the doctrinein its higher sense prophetic, under the old covenantthat love, living, active, self-forgetful, self-sacrificing love, transcends all law and family considerations. Christ announces the same doctrine in its highest form, when he says: Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother (Mat 12:50). Ruths love for Naomi takes the place of physical descent. It engrafts her child, as it were, into the heart of Naomi. In itself the child is only the grandson of her family and estate; on account of Ruths love, it becomes to her a veritable grandchild of love, nearer to her heart than if a daughter of her own had given birth to it. The power of pure and self-forgetful love, such as Ruth had entertained, could not be more beautifully delineated.
Rth 4:16. And she became foster-mother to it. She took it into her lap, like an actual grandmother. She formed the child in Israelitish life and customs. She became to it what Mordecai was to Esther, an instructress in the law and Israelitish culture. The son of Ruth became to her an actual grandchild of love. For this reason the female neighbors give him a name whose signification is equivalent to Naomis son.
Rth 4:17. They called his name, Obed. There are several noteworthy points connected with this. The female neighbors, in order to give pleasure to Naomi, give the child a name. But beside this, he doubtless received a name from his parents, probably one that belonged to the family. But that given by the women continued to be his usual name, and by it he was inserted into the family genealogy. Consequently, the idea enunciated in it must have been specially characteristic. The text says: They gave him a name, namely, a son is born to Naomi; and hence they called him Obed. Now, whether the name Obed be explained as servant of God or servant of Naomi, the sense in either case remains insipid.20 What the women mean is, not that the child is the servant of Naomi, but that he is to her as a son.21 If the words of Rth 4:17 are to have a plain sense; nay, if the preservation of just that name which the female neighbors gave him is to have an explanation, the name Obed must in some way express the idea of the word son. For in this name son, given with reference to Naomi, there is contained the idea that the sin which lay at the base of her evil fortune had been atoned for. She who lost the children of her own body, had now a son in the spirit of true love. It is true, that from the philological stores extant in the Bible, the explanation of Obed in the sense of son is not possible; but it may be done by the assistance of other languages. It is sufficiently clear that Obed is to be connected with the Greek (, ), Latin putus, Sanskrit pta, putra, Persian puser.22
The circumstance that Obed was used in the sense of son, justifies the conjecture that in the Hebrew of that day there were various foreign words in use, probably introduced through Aramaic influences, without postulating a closer contact of the so-called Semitic with the Indo-germanic tongues than is usually assumed.
He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. In these words the doctrine of the whole Book reaches its point of culmination. They point out the completion of the blessing pronounced on Ruth by Boaz. The name of the superstitious kinsman, who thought that marriage with the Moabitess would endanger his inheritance, is forgotten; but from Boaz descends the Hero ( ), the King of Poets, David, the Prophet, and type of the Messiah. Prom him Christ comes through the promise, even as Obed was the son of Naomi through the love of Ruth.23 The doctrine of the whole narrative is expressed in the words of the Apostle, Love is the fulfilling of the law.
Note.
Verses 1822 are an addition from the genealogical tables of the House of David. The chronological question involved in them must be considered in connection with the other analogous data, for which reason we refer here to 1Ch 2:8 ff.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Naomi took the child. Whoever was once capable of true love, preserves its power forever after. Throughout her history, until the close of the narrative, Naomis name is truly descriptive of her character. Her love is the cause of the blessing that finally ensues; for by it she won love. It sustained her in suffering,it prompted her to action in behalf of her daughter-in-law. Now in the end she enjoys its blessing, and becomes the loving foster-mother of the child of her who was better to her than seven sons.
Naomi is everywhere an image of the Church of Christ, which wins, confesses, and fosters through, love. Men whose natural hearts are hostile to her, become her obedient children. When there is apostasy and misery in the church, it is for priests and preachers to repent, as Naomi did, and not to excuse themselves. If they really have the spirit of love, they cannot but feel that they have to blame themselves first of all. When the church does not make converts among heathen and Jews, the attempt to lay the guilt of this judgment on them, and to excuse ourselves, is a sign of a hard heart. Alas! God alone knows what heavy loads of guilty responsibility rest on the church for having herself given the impulse by which thousands were kept from coming to the Saviour. And how greatly she sins, when she does not rightly, foster those who do come, exhibiting neither love, nor wisdom, nor faith in her treatment of them,that too will one day be made manifest. Impatience is not in love; and a little money does not make amends for the coldness of consummate self-righteousness. They are children, who are laid in the lap of the church,children according to the spirit, that is to say real children, who, by Gods grace, bring a greater blessing to the church that seven sons according to the flesh.
Pascal: Two laws are sufficient to regulate the whole Christian Church more completely that all political law could do: love to God, and love to ones neighbor.
They said, there is a son born to Naomi, and called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. Boaz predicted a blessing for Ruth, and the faith through which he did it was rewarded by his being made a sharer in it. All he did was to utter a word of prophecy, prompted by his faith in the grace of his God, and lo, he was made the progenitor of David, the prophet! He who firmly relies on the love of God, is always a seer. Boaz had faith enough to bring about, in due time, the fulfillment of his own benediction, and became the ancestor of Him in whom all the prophecies of David are fulfilled. Of Boaz himself no warrior deeds are known, and yet the greatest of Israels heroes, the conqueror of Goliath,24 sprang from him. He conquered himself, and on that account became the ancestor of Him who triumphed over sin and death. Similarly, Ruth had nothing but a heart full of love, and yet to her, once a daughter of Moab, there was given what neither Deborah nor Jael obtained,to become the mother of Him by whom all the nations are redeemed.
Jerome (on Isa 16:1): O Moab! out of thee shall come forth the unspotted Lamb, which bears the sins of the world, and rules over the whole earth! From the rock of the wilderness, i.e. from Ruth, widowed by the death of her husband, Boaz derived Obed. and from David came Christ.
Gerlach: Thus the coming of the great King is prepared for, upon whom the Lord had determined to confirm the dominion over his people for evermore; and the converted Moabitess, who entered as a worthy member into the commonwealth of the people of God, became the mother of David and of Christ.
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The Jewish tradition which makes Ruth a descendant of Eglon, the Moabitish king who oppressed Israel as a punishment for its sins, contains an allegory worthy of notice. The daughter of the oppressor, becomes the mother of the Liberator, the Redeemer out of the House of David. According to the Jewish expositors the name Ruth is derived from a root which signifies to give drink, to assuage thirst (Berachoth, 7 a); and from her, say they, David came, who with his songs and psalms supplied the wants of those who thirst after God. And from David, we may add, came the Saviour who gave to the Samaritan woman when she thirsted, of that fountain which springs up unto everlasting life.
The ancient church selected the sixteenth of July as the day on which to commemorate Ruth.25 The reason for this is probably to be found in the following considerations: In Deu 23:3, it is said: An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of Jehovah; even to their tenth generation they shall not enter. This was supposed to have been fulfilled in Ruth. In the genealogy of the Gospel according to Matthew, Boaz, through whom Ruth was received into the congregation of Jehovah, is the tenth from Abraham. But it was the Lord and Saviour, whose day Abraham saw, and who according to the flesh descended from Ruth, who first took away the curse from Moab also. This was announced by Isaiah, when in addressing Moab, he says (Isa 16:5): In mercy shall a throne be prepared, that one sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, and judge, and seek judgment, and hasten righteousness. Now, as the ancient church set apart the sixth of July for Isaiah, because he prophesied of Christ, who suffered on the sixth day of the week, and whose incarnation was celebrated on the sixth of January, it fixed the anniversary of Ruth ten days later, on the sixteenth of July. Thus her name and the number of her day are symbolical of prophecy and grace. But ten days farther on, the twenty-sixth, is the day of Anna, whom tradition makes to be the mother of the Virgin Mary. Thus the name of Ruth stood ten days after the prophecy and ten days before its approaching fulfillment, equally distant from him who prophecied of the Virgin and from her who was the Virgins mother. The Moabitish stranger finds herself in the middle between the seer who beheld the wilderness of Moab become fruitful, and the nearest ancestress of Him who delivers Moab and all the world from barrenness and thirst.
Pictorially, the ancient church represented Ruth with a sheaf in her hand. As was natural, she was always conceived as youthful. She might be represented with a rose, in accordance with what may be the meaning of her name (see on Rth 1:4). The Rose of Bethlehem was the ancestress of the Rose of Jesse (Mary), whom ancient pictures represent sitting in a rosebush. Both rose and sheaf are symbols of the truth that though love may sow in tears, it will through Gods compassion reap in joy.
Footnotes:
[18][Rth 4:15.Lit. and may he support thine old age. On the form of (from ), cf. Ges. 55, 4; on its construction after , which here however has the force of the jussive (optative) through its connection with the preceding verb, Ges. 132, 3, Rem. 1.On the forms and , cf. Ges. 59, Rem. 3.Tr.]
[19][Rth 4:20.Salmah ( or *, 1Ch 2:11) appears in Rth 4:21 as Salmon, which many MSS. read here also. Originally, the name was probably used indiscriminately either with the termination * or cf. Ges. 84, 15). By detrition of the , became .Tr.]
[20]The subterfuge of Le Clerc, who proposes to read , in the sense of unfortunate, poor one, with reference to the poverty once suffered by Ruth, is entirely wrong, to say nothing of the fact that the word itself does not have the sense which he assigns to it.
[21][But is not the emphasis to be laid on to Naomi rather than on son? It is true, that analogy leads us to expect the name to contain specifically the same idea expressed by the women (cf. however Gen 29:32); but it must also be admitted (with Berth.) that Obed in the sense of one that serves, sc. Naomi, harmonizes well with the words in Rth 4:15 : May he be to thee a soul-restorer, and a support of thine old age.Tr.]
[22]As regards the in , its value (best compared perhaps with a spiritus asper) is exactly the same as in to be compared with ltari and ltus,, with moliri, with , etc.
[23]The reference of Grotius to the traditionary history of Ocrisia, who became the mother of Servius Tullius, is very unfortunate. Ocrisia was a slave. Her story has no ethical background. The legends concerning her were only designed to glorify the derivation of the king. Cf. Niebuhr, Rm. Gesch. i. 376 (2d edit.).
[24] It is on the ground of this contrast that Jewish tradition homiletically advanced the idea that Goliath descended from Orpah, who returned to Moab, as David from Ruth. The early teachers of the church were acquainted with this tradition, and Prudentius even introduced it into his poem, Hamartigenia, 4:782:
Sed pristinus Orph
Fanorum ritus prputia barbara suasit
Malle, et semiferi stirpem nutrire Goli.
Ruth, dum per stipulas agresti amburitur stu
Fulcra Booz meruit, castoque adscita cubili
Christigenam fecunda domum, Davidica regna
Edidit atque deo mortales miscuit ortus.
[25]Cf. my article in the Berl. Wochenblatt, 1863, Numbers 32.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
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.
The sacred writer justly ascribes the fruit of the womb unto the great Author. So saith the Psalmist, Psa 127:3
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rth 4:13 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.
Ver. 13. So Boaz took Ruth. ] Solemnly, in the face of that assembly, where, it appeareth by the former verse, she was personally present.
And when he went in unto her.
The Lord gave her conception.
And she bare a son.
a Lingua Hebraica ideo vocatur sancta, quod nulla in ea inveniantur propria nomina, quae significent pudenda utriusque sexus, coitum, excrementa, &c. Sed res turpes aliqua pudica periphrasi circumloquatur. – Munster in Deut. xxiii.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
bare a son. In the second jubilee year (1325-1324).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
am 2697, bc 1307, An, Ex, Is, 184
Boaz: Rth 3:11
the Lord: Rth 4:12, Gen 20:17, Gen 20:18, Gen 21:1-3, Gen 25:21, Gen 29:31, Gen 30:2, Gen 30:22, Gen 30:23, Gen 33:5, 1Sa 1:27, Rth 2:5, Psa 113:9, Psa 127:3
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rth 4:13. Took Ruth Which he might do, though she was a Moabitess, because the prohibition against marrying such is to be restrained to those who continued heathen; whereas Ruth was a sincere proselyte and convert to the God of Israel. Thus he that forsakes all for Christ, shall find more than all with him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
C. God’s provision of a Song of Solomon 4:13-17
Rth 4:13 is a key verse in the book because it records the fulfillment of Naomi and Ruth’s plans to obtain rest (Rth 2:2; Rth 3:1-5). [Note: See Constable, p. 111.] A son was indispensable to the continuation of the line of Boaz as well as that of Mahlon and Elimelech. With the birth of Obed, Ruth and Naomi could both rest. They had produced someone who would carry on the program of God for Israel. The redeemer in view in this discussion was Obed, not Boaz.
Why did a godly Israelite such as Boaz marry a Moabite woman? Did the Mosaic Law not forbid the Israelites from admitting Moabites into their nation (Deu 23:3)? Several solutions to this problem have been proposed.
1. Perhaps Boaz simply disregarded the law at this point. Was this not, after all, the time of the judges in which everyone did what was right in his own eyes, including ignoring the proscription about welcoming Moabites into Israel? This is unlikely because Boaz, as the writer presented him in Ruth, was a scrupulous observer of the Law (cf. Rth 2:4; Rth 2:12; Rth 3:9-13; Rth 4:1-6; Rth 4:9-10; Rth 4:13).
2. Perhaps the prohibition in Deuteronomy applied only to male Moabites since Moses used the masculine gender when he referred to them. However, the masculine gender would have been the normal gender to use when referring to both male and female Moabites. Moreover, there is no other clue in Deuteronomy that only males were in view in this prohibition.
3. Probably the law in Deuteronomy had in view unbelievers who wanted to immigrate into Israel. God had always welcomed believers from outside Israel into the covenant community (Genesis 17; Genesis 38; Joshua 2; et al.). His purpose for Israel was that she bring people from other nations to God (Exo 19:5-6). God’s purpose in the Abrahamic Covenant to make Israel a blessing to the world by bringing all people into relationship with God antedated and superseded all provisions of the later Mosaic Covenant. God brought the Mosaic Covenant in alongside the Abrahamic Covenant to help the Israelites maximize the blessings He had promised Abraham.
The women blessed the Lord (Rth 4:14), acknowledging His goodness in providing a redeemer for Naomi, as well as Ruth, in Obed (Rth 4:15). God eventually granted their desire that Obed’s name become famous in Israel. Little did Ruth and Boaz realize that from their union would come Israel’s greatest kings, including David and Jesus Christ. Obed did indeed restore life to Naomi’s apparently dead branch of the family of Judah (Rth 4:15). Furthermore he sustained her in her old age by giving her hope (cf. Rth 1:20-21).
". . . in all probability, Obed originally meant ’servant’ of Naomi; as her go’el, he ’served’ her by assuring her family’s survival and providing her food. . . . Obed’s name perhaps added the nuance ’servant of Yahweh,’ for in the end his service of Naomi served Yahweh’s larger purpose as well." [Note: Hubbard, p. 277.]
Ruth too received praise for her unusually selfless love and care for her mother-in-law. The ancient Israelites believed that seven sons constituted the ideal family (cf. 1Sa 2:5; Job 1:2; Job 42:13; Act 19:14-17). Thus saying that Ruth was better to Naomi than seven sons was to say that she provided all that an ideal family could for Naomi.
Naomi became a nurse of Obed (Rth 4:16) in the sense of becoming his guardian, the meaning of the Hebrew word ’aman (lit. "cared for him" or "one who serves"). Compare "Obadiah," which means "servant of Yahweh." She did not become his wet nurse but his nanny. [Note: Bush, p. 259; Block, p. 730.] Naomi adopted this grandson as her own child. [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 492.]
Rth 4:17 contains one of only two instances in Scripture when a child received its name from someone other than the immediate family (cf. Exo 2:10; Luk 1:59).
"This verse [Rth 4:17] is, of course, a clue to the book’s purpose: to show that the reign of David resulted from neither his shrewd politics nor his clever tactics but from the divine preservation of his worthy family line. Therefore, Israel was to accept David’s kingship as the gift of divine guidance." [Note: Hubbard, p. 278. See also Block, pp. 734-36.]
Why did the writer feature Naomi in this closing section of the book rather than Ruth? I believe he did so to finish off the main point of chapter 1. There Naomi said it was impossible for her to have a son (Rth 1:11-13). Yet at the end of the book she has a son (Rth 4:17). This motif of a need for the line of Judah, therefore, is one that the writer wanted his readers to appreciate. God provided the seed supernaturally (Rth 4:14) to a godly couple. Ruth’s faith in Yahweh qualified her as a channel of blessing in spite of her Moabite origins. The Book of Ruth opens with three funerals and closes with a wedding. [Note: Wiersbe, p. 197.]