Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

In the first blessing, the elders express the hope that Ruth will be fruitful and build up the house of Boaz as Rachel and Leah did in the case of Jacob. Interestingly, Rachel is listed first, Leah second. This may be a case in which the more important person is named second, as with Ruth in 1:4, 14 and Mahlon in 4:9. Leah as the mother of Judah and her descendants are in view in the third blessing (v. 12).37 The second blessing contains a poetic paralleling. The last clause enhances the understanding of the first. The phrase qara’ shem literally means “may a name be called/given,” which appears to be idiomatic for “be famous.” The recurrence of the word shem (name) in this blessing cannot help but be a play on the third part of Boaz’s sworn declaration, “to maintain the name [shem] of the dead” (v. 10). Thus the first clause of the blessing is best seen (as the NIV translation reflects) as dealing with standing or reputation, though the richness of the nuances of ‘ase hayil cannot be overlooked.38 The third blessing invokes the case of Perez, the offspring of Tamar and Judah, who, in spite of the machinations of his father and mother (Gen 38),39 proved to be a gracious blessing from God. This blessing subtly speaks to the parallel of Ruth and Tamar as non-Israelites included in the tribal delineation. Like the story of Boaz and Ruth, the story of Judah and Tamar is a story of family continuity achieved by the determination of a woman,40 though the story of Boaz and Ruth i...

The speech of the women (B) is threefold and gives an interpretation of the events. The speech expounds on Naomi’s restoration to life and fullness.52 Appropriately, it is the women of Bethlehem (cf. 1:19b) who interpret the significance of the boy’s birth. While they praise Yahweh, their focus is on Naomi and the infant boy. He is Yahweh’s provision to Naomi as a kinsman-redeemer (go’el). The meaning of this is given in the following statement: “He will renew [restore] your life and sustain [support] you in your old age” (v. 15). As a go’el, the infant boy—despite his age—through his birth provides restoration and wholeness to the family. The resolution is perfect. “Death and emptiness (1:3–5, 21) have given way to life and fullness”—a kind or type of resurrection.53

Block observes: More than anyone else in the history of Israel, Ruth embodies the fundamental principle of the nation’s ethic: “You shall love your God with all your heart” (Deut 6:5) “and your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). In Lev 19:34 Moses instructs the Israelites to love the stranger as they love themselves. Ironically, it is this stranger from Moab who shows the Israelites what this means.56

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 son!”61 Thus the narrator intends a semantic wordplay:62 The “son born to Naomi”63 receives the name Obed “server”/“servant,” understood here in the sense of “provider, guardian” (cf. Mal. 3:17), since he will show kindness to his grandmother.

Finally, a surprise identification is given. The child is “the father of Jesse, the father of David.” “This surprise is all the more delightful because the narrator at the beginning subtly hinted at some such connection by his identification of the family as ‘Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah’ (1:2).”66 This, of course, was the very clan and city of David used in the introduction to the narrative in 1 Samuel 17:12: “Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah.” It is at this point that the reader can perceive how precarious the situation was: Without Ruth, the line of Elimelek would be extinguished, as, too, the line of Boaz, and hence no David. In addition, the interconnection in this verse of Naomi and the short genealogy of David “brings the world of the women into the world of men as Bethlehem’s women redefine kinship based on genealogical lineage. This short genealogy was strictly speaking neither legal nor biological as Ruth not Naomi is Obed’s biological mother.”67

One of the three blessings of the legal assembly in 4:11–12 was that Yahweh might make Boaz flourish and give him renown in Bethlehem through a family line whose size would be as great as that of the patriarch Jacob/Israel and whose significance would match that of Perez (the premier clan of Judah). This genealogy, which leads from Perez through Boaz to David, bears testimony to the fulfillment of the blessing of the legal assembly of Bethlehem.69 The genealogies at the end of the book lift the story to a national level. The first genealogy (at the end of the epilogue, v. 17) begins with Obed, son of Boaz and Ruth, and culminates two generations later in David; the second (here in the coda) goes back to Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar, then leads to Salmon, father of Boaz, and after ten generations also culminates in David. The double emphasis on David moves the book to the national level. Culminating with David as the tenth member of the genealogy, there is an automatic connection made with the apex-person of the ten-member genealogies of Noah (Gen 5) and Abraham (Gen 11), where the tenth member enters into a new covenant with God.

One might have expected this ten-member genealogy to have started with Judah, being the tribal patronym. However, it starts with Perez, places Boaz in the seventh position, and concludes with David in the tenth position. By doing this, two things are strongly emphasized. First, by starting with Perez, the son of Tamar, the genealogy emphasizes David’s Canaanite roots. Second, by placing Boaz seventh, the genealogy connects with the saying of the women in 4:15 that Ruth, who has just given birth, is better than seven sons; yet because she is Moabite, it, too, emphasizes David’s foreign lineage. Combined, it stresses the importance of “God’s blessing of ordinary people who make extraordinary decisions and live extraordinary lives of hesed—ordinary people who God providentially uses to bring forth his great purposes.”70

Consequently, “the original point of the narrative is extended beyond showing God’s providence and care in the life of one family. It now concerns the life of the entire nation, for in the son born to Naomi the history of God’s rule through David has begun.”74 Furthermore, God’s rule through his ultimate ideal king, a son of David and God’s own Son, will come through Naomi’s son. This has ramifications throughout both history and the future.

If the book of Judges (especially in the latter part of the book) presents people doing what is right in their own eyes, being self-absorbed and self-driven, then the book of Ruth presents the very opposite, where Boaz and Ruth in particular are driven by concerns for others, by the issues of hesed. This is perhaps most vivid in the contrast between Samson (dominated by self-absorption) and Boaz (driven by his concern for the welfare of the two widows).

Furthermore, Yahweh provides Naomi with another go’el. There were things that Boaz could do as go’el, and there were things beyond his ability to remedy. Boaz could give provisions to the two widows, he could redeem the land, and he could acquire Ruth as his wife. He could not, by himself, restore Naomi’s emptiness as a result of childlessness. But through his grace God is able to do this by means of the birth of Obed. It is he who “brings back” Naomi in this final regard. God’s ability to fulfill prayer and petition is especially emphasized in this birth.

The role of the go’el, in one sense, is foreign to our culture. But in another sense, the examples of Boaz and Jesus certainly give us illustrations and models that we can emulate. There are many around us, whether in our families, extended families, or in the church, who desperately need a go’el, that is, someone who can redeem them and restore them to wholeness. This is true in many physical contexts but also in numerous spiritual contexts.