Ruth 4:13-22 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
At the end of Lesson 1, “the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband” (Ruth 1:5). Back in Bethlehem, Naomi said, “I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1:21).
In the last lesson, Boaz settled the matter at the city gate, and the people blessed him: “of the offspring which the LORD will give you by this young woman” (Ruth 4:12).
This lesson reads the last ten verses of the book of Ruth.
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son.
14The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you today without a near kinsman. Let his name be famous in Israel.
15He shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”
16Naomi took the child, laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him.
17The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi”. They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron,
19and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab,
20and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon,
21and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed,
22and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.
The LORD enabled her to conceive. “So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son” (v. 13). Ruth had been married to Mahlon in Moab, and “They lived there about ten years” (Ruth 1:4); the passage does not say she ever had a child. This time, the passage says plainly that “the LORD enabled her to conceive” (v. 13).
The women speak to Naomi. When the child is born, it is Naomi the women speak to: “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you today without a near kinsman” (v. 14). They say the child “shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age” (v. 15).
Better than seven sons. This is how the women speak of Ruth: “your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons” (v. 15). In Lesson 1, Naomi lost two sons; here the women say this daughter-in-law is better to her than seven sons. After verse 13, Ruth’s name does not appear again in the book.
A son is born to Naomi. “Naomi took the child, laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him” (v. 16). The neighbors say, “A son is born to Naomi” (v. 17), and they name the child Obed. The one who said, “Don’t call me Naomi” (Ruth 1:20), is now spoken of by name by everyone around her.
Connected to David. Verse 17 does not stop with the baby: “He is the father of Jesse, the father of David” (v. 17). One family’s story is suddenly connected to Israel’s king.
The genealogy. The last five verses of the book are a genealogy: “Now this is the history of the generations of Perez” (v. 18), ten names from Perez to David. Perez, named in the blessing at the gate in the last lesson (Ruth 4:12), now heads the genealogy. The last words of the book are: “Jesse became the father of David” (v. 22).
Seven lessons done. The book of Ruth begins with a famine and three deaths, and ends with a genealogy. In between there are no visions and no miracles — only harvest, gleaning, a threshing floor and a city gate. The narration shows God acting in only two places: at the beginning, Naomi “had heard in the country of Moab how the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread” (Ruth 1:6); at the end, “the LORD enabled her to conceive” (v. 13). Every other mention of the LORD is in the prayers, blessings and words of the people in the story.
The book of Ruth is set “In the days when the judges judged” (Ruth 1:1), when “there was no king in Israel” (Judg 21:25). Yet the last name in this book is David — later Israel’s king.
We read in Lesson 1 that the law says, “An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the LORD’s assembly” (Deut 23:3). The book of Ruth keeps calling her “Ruth the Moabitess” (Ruth 1:22; 2:2, 21; 4:5, 10) and does not hide where she came from. This Moabite woman became David’s great-grandmother: she bore Obed (Ruth 4:13, 17), and “Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David” (Ruth 4:22). The passage records both things and does not explain them for us.
Seven lessons: Coming Back Empty · Your God, My God · Gleaning · Under His Wings · The Night at the Threshing Floor · At the City Gate · David’s Great-Grandmother.
In Lesson 1 Naomi lost everything; in this lesson she holds a child in her arms. But the passage does not say that what she lost was given back: Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion did not come back. It only says that where she thought she was ‘empty,’ the story kept being written — all the way to David.
You may not be able to see where your own story is going. Ruth and Naomi could not see it either.
This week: Look back over these seven lessons and write down one place where you saw God at work in ‘ordinary days’ — in Ruth’s story, and in your own life.
The genealogy of Jesus Christ at the beginning of Matthew reads: “Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse” (Matt 1:5).
Ruth’s name is written into the genealogy of Jesus; in the same verse, Rahab is named too. Readers can set this verse beside the book of Ruth and see for themselves.
Scripture: World English Bible.