The narrative statement stimulates a female response in B' (v. 17). They proclaim: “ ‘Naomi has a son!’ And they named him Obed.”59 Just as the women proclaim the significance of the birth in B (vv. 14–15) with reference to Naomi above, now in B' (v. 17) they joyfully proclaim the meaning of his name. The narrator is using poetic license here. He does not expect to be taken literally, as if the women of the neighborhood really are the ones who give the child his name!60 Rather, these women “name” him in the sense of “providing the explanation for his name with their glad cry,” “Naomi has a
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