Ruth 4:15
Ver. 15. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life,.... Of the joys, pleasures, and comforts of it, which she had been deprived of through the death of her husband and her two sons, ever since which she had lived a sorrowful life; all the comfort she had was from her daughter-in-law, and now a grandchild being born to her of her would be a means of restoring comfort to her mourning sorrowful spirit, and give her pleasure in those years in which she did not expect any:
and a nourisher of thine old age; that would when grown up feed her, support her, and supply her with all necessaries of life, being heir to a large and rich estate:
for thy daughter in law which loveth thee; Ruth the wife of Boaz, who had shown her love, in leaving her own country and kindred, to come along with her into a strange land, and who had laboured for her support in it, and still retained the same affection for her:
which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him: either which had been so in the time of her widowhood, as the Targum; or rather which was so now, being the wife of so rich a person, and having now brought forth a son, heir to the estate, who would be more capable of doing for her than if she had seven sons living, having no other than their paternal estate. Ruth 4:16Ver. 16. 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. Ruth 4:17Ver. 17. And the women her neighbours gave it a name,.... Josephus says {q} Naomi gave it, by the advice of her neighbours; very probably on the eighth day when he was circumcised, and the neighbours were invited on that occasion, at which time it seems it was usual to give names to children, see Lu 1:59. The Romans gave names to females on the eighth day, to the males on the ninth; hence the goddess Nundina had her name {r}; the Greeks generally on the tenth, sometimes on the seventh {s}: it was commonly the province of the father to give the name, and sometimes his neighbours and nearest friends were called, and in their presence the name was given, and by any of them he should choose in his stead {t}:saying, there is a son born to Naomi; to her family, and even to herself, being born of her who had been wife to her eldest son; and this was to her as instead of him, and was as he to her; so Aben Ezra compares this with Ex 2:10 and moreover, this child was born, as the neighbours presaged, for the great comfort and advantage of Naomi, to be her supporter and nourisher in her old age, Ru 4:15and they called his name Obed; which signifies "serving", as Josephus {u} rightly observes, though he does not always give the true sense of Hebrew words: this name was given, not in remembrance of the service his mother was obliged to, before marriage with Boaz; but rather on the account of the service that he would be of to Naomi, as they hoped and believed; though the reason of it, as given by the Targum, is not to be overlooked, which interprets it,"who served the Lord of the world with a perfect heart;''and so they might have some respect to his being hereafter a servant of the Lord:he is the father of Jesse, and the father of David: so Jesse is called the Bethlehemite, 1Sa 16:1, being of the city of Bethlehem, of which city Boaz was when his son Obed was born, who was the father of Jesse; of whom was David king of Israel, and from whom sprung the Messiah, for whose sake this book was written, that his genealogy might clearly appear; and of which use it is made by the Evangelists Matthew; and Luke.{q} Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 4.) {r} Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 2. c. 25. {s} Harpocration & Suidas in voce ebdomeuomhnou, Scholiast. in Aristoph. Aves, p. 565. & Euripid. & Aristot. in ib. {t} Vid. Sperling. de Baptism. Ethnic. c. 14. & 15. {u} Ibid. Ruth 4:18Ver. 18. Now these are the generations of Pharez,.... The son of Judah, by Tamar before mentioned, Ru 4:12, for the intention of this genealogy is to confirm the truth of Jacob's prophecy, of Shiloh the Messiah coming from the tribe of Judah, Ge 49:10 and therefore it begins with Pharez, well known to be the son of Judah, and ends with David, whose son the Messiah was to be, as is owned by all Jews and Gentiles that believe the divine revelation:Pharez begat Hezron; who was one of those that went down with Jacob into Egypt, being born in the land of Canaan, Ge 47:12 called Esrom in Mt 1:3. Ruth 4:19Ver. 19. And Hezron begat Ram,.... Called Aram by the Septuagint, and so in Mt 1:3,and Ram begat Amminadab; in whose name there is no variation, neither in the book of Chronicles nor in the Evangelists; both these, as well as the next, were born in Egypt. Ruth 4:20Ver. 20. And Amminadab begat Nahshon,.... The prince of the tribe of Judah, as the Targum adds; and so he was when the Israelites were come out of Egypt, and were in the wilderness at the time of the dedication of the altar, Nu 7:12 called Nahsson, Mt 1:4, and Nahshon begat Salmon; or, as in the Hebrew text, Salmah, and in 1Ch 2:11, Salma; and yet in the verse following Salmon, as we read it. Ruth 4:21Ver. 21. And Salmon begat Boaz,.... Of Rahab the harlot, whom he married, Mt 1:5 the very same person that makes a principal part of this book, and whom the Targum here takes to be the judge Ibzan,See Gill on "Ru 1:1".and Boaz begat Obed; of Ruth; of whom see the preceding verses. Ruth 4:22Ver. 22. And Obed begat Jesse,.... The Bethlehemite, the father of David:and Jesse begat David; the Targum adds, the king of Israel; and so the Syriac and Arabic versions add, the king; from whence it is by some concluded that this book was written by Samuel, not only after the birth of David, but after he had been anointed king by him: here being but four generations mentioned, from the coming of the Israelites into Canaan, to the birth of David, which was three hundred and sixty years, each of the four persons, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, and Jesse, must beget a son when one hundred years old and upwards; and which is not at all incredible, as appears by instances in later times, and therefore not at all improbable, that in those ancient times men of sobriety and good constitutions should have children at such an age.