Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ruth 4:16

And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

16. took the child, and laid it in her bosom ] to shew that she adopted the child of Ruth as her own; cf. the phrase ‘born upon the knees’ Gen 30:3; Gen 50:13.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 16. Naomi took the child] This might do for Naomi, but it was bad for the child. A child, unless remarkably healthy and robust, will suffer considerably by being nursed by an old woman, especially if the child sleep with her. The aged gain refreshment and energy by sleeping with the young; and from the same means the young derive premature decrepitude. The vigour which is absorbed by the former is lost by the latter. It is a foolish and destructive custom to permit young children, which is a common case, to sleep with aged aunts and old grandmothers. Bacon’s grand secret of the cure of old age, couched in so many obscure and enigmatical terms, is simply this: Let young persons sleep constantly with those who are aged and infirm. And it was on this principle that the physicians of David recommended a young healthy girl to sleep with David in his old age. They well knew that the aged infirm body of the king would absorb a considerable portion of healthy energy from the young woman.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom,…. As a token of her most tender love and affection for it; this it is probable she did quickly after the birth of it:

and became a nurse unto it; that is, after the mother had suckled and weaned it, then she took it from her, and brought it up.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(16) Nurse.The verb (aman) here is that used in Isa. 49:23, and kings shall be thy nursing fathers. That ordinarily used for the natural nursing of a woman is different.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘ And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it. 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.’

And Naomi already had cause for blessing, for she acted as his nurse, coddling him and watching over him. And her women neighbours supplied a name for him because he was ‘a son born to Naomi’, not literally, but because he was her grandson. The name means ‘servant’ and the idea in the neighbours’ minds would be that he would be like a true servant to his grandmother. But the writer probably also saw it as signifying that he was the servant of God, an that he proved to be a true servant of God, for he begat Jesse, who begat the great King David. He could in terms of those days perform no greater service.

Note that in Rth 1:11-13 Naomi had made clear that it as unlikely for her to have a son. But now we learn from these verses that she did have ‘a son’. Even though he was not from her womb, she nursed him in her womb. God had heard the cry of her heart.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

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.

The names in scripture are for the most part significant. It was the custom among God’s people (and a very gracious one it was) for parents to name their children after some remarkable providence. Perhaps with this intent, that every time they hooked upon their child, or heard him named, they might have their memory refreshed in the recollection of that special mercy. Thus Hannah’s Samuel was so called, because it was an answer to prayer. 1Sa 1:20 . Places also have furnished our memorandums of God’s mercies. Jacob’s Bethel and Hagar’s well, are eminent instances of the kind. Gen 16:14Gen 16:14 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Rth 4:16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

Ver. 16. And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom. ] Next her heart, to show her great love and tender affection, though she were but mother-in-law to his mother. What, then, may we think of Ruth, own mother to Obed? There is an ocean of love in a parent’s heart.

“ .”

Grandfathers and grandmothers oft love their grandchildren better than their own, for love descendeth.

And became his nurse. ] A dry nurse no doubt, a foster nurse, a faithful nurse, as the Hebrew word importeth, not a milk nurse, for she was too old to give it suck. That was a miracle, if true, that is reported of the old woman of Bolton in Lancashire, who, when that town was plundered by Prince Rupert in our late unnatural wars, took up a child that lay pitifully crying at the breasts of her slain mother, and having neither food for herself nor for the infant in that common calamity, to still the child, laid it to her breast: and although she were aged above seventy years, and had not given suck above twenty years before, yet the child sucking, milk came into her breasts wherewith she nourished it, to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders. This, saith my reverend author, a is attested by three godly ministers, and various others of good credit, who were eyewitnesses of the same.

a Mr Clark’s Mirror, edit. 2, p. 16.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)