READING RUTH · 9 OF 9
From Ruth to David
The book ends with a birth, words addressed to Naomi and a family line reaching David. Read how these endings belong together without losing the people who brought us here.
In this lesson
From blessing to narrated event
At Bethlehem’s gate, Boaz has publicly declared the acquisition of the family estate and Ruth as his wife. The witnesses have blessed their future household. Ruth is the widow of Mahlon, Naomi’s son. Naomi and Ruth’s story began with famine, death and a difficult journey; it now reaches a new generation.
וַיִּקַּח בֹּעַז אֶת רוּת וַתְּהִי לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה
וַיָּבֹא אֵלֶיהָ
וַיִּתֵּן יְהוָה לָהּ הֵרָיוֹן וַתֵּלֶד בֵּן13. Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He was intimate with her; Hashem granted her conception, and she gave birth to a son.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God. Conception is the beginning of pregnancy. The narrator now reports marriage, marital intimacy, conception and birth. What the people prayed for in 4:12 has moved into the narration of events.
1. Who bears the child, and whom does the narrator name as the giver of conception?
Ruth bears the child. The narrator names Hashem as the giver of conception. Preserve both the human relationships and the explicit recognition of God’s gift. This verse is a new narrated event, not a detail to insert backward into the threshing-floor scene.
The women speak to Naomi
14. The women said to Naomi, “Blessed is Hashem, who has not left you without a redeemer today. May his name be known in Israel.
כִּי כַלָּתֵךְ אֲשֶׁר אֲהֵבַתֶךְ יְלָדַתּוּ
אֲשֶׁר הִיא טוֹבָה לָךְ מִשִּׁבְעָה בָּנִים15. He will restore your life and sustain you in old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you has borne him, she who is better to you than seven sons.”
16. Naomi took the child, held him close and became his caregiver.
17. The neighboring women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
The women address Naomi, but they also name Ruth’s love. Their comparison with seven sons is a strong expression of Ruth’s value to her mother-in-law. The child does not erase Ruth from the ending: they say directly that the daughter-in-law who loves Naomi bore him.
2. Which words keep Ruth’s relationship with Naomi visible after the birth?
“Your daughter-in-law who loves you” and “better to you than seven sons.” The women praise Ruth herself, not only her ability to bear a child. Their speech recognizes the relationship that has carried the narrative from Moab to Bethlehem.
A worked reading: three claims, three roles
A learner writes, “Naomi gives birth to Obed and becomes his mother.” Return to the voices and verbs.
- The narrator, verse 13: Ruth gives birth.
- The women, verse 15: Naomi’s loving daughter-in-law bore the child.
- The narrator and neighbors, verses 16–17: Naomi becomes his caregiver; the neighbors celebrate a son born to Naomi.
The stronger account is: “Ruth bears the son. Naomi takes him into her care, and the neighbors celebrate what his birth means for her household.” The community’s words express restored family life around Naomi; they do not change the narrator’s identification of the birth mother.
3. Does “caregiver” establish that Naomi breastfeeds the child or completes a formal adoption?
No. The Hebrew omenet describes her caring role. The passage says she holds the child and cares for him; it does not describe breastfeeding or an adoption procedure. Keep the meaningful relationship without adding an unreported mechanism.
The word go’el, redeemer, returns in verse 14. Verse 15 directs attention to the child whom Ruth has borne and the life and support he will bring Naomi. Malbim, Rabbi Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel, explicitly identifies the newborn in his explanation of verse 14. This is not a report that the infant has just carried out Boaz’s land transaction.
Malbim on Ruth 4:14. Here we use his identification of the child; his fuller discussion explores the spiritual meaning of family continuity.
4. Which phrase helps us follow “he” in the women’s speech?
“Your daughter-in-law ... has borne him” in verse 15 points to the child. Read the connected sentence rather than automatically assigning every occurrence of “redeemer” in the book to Boaz. The women speak of what the newborn means for Naomi’s life and future.
Hear the ending beside the arrival
In Ruth 1:19–22, the town stirred at Naomi’s return, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?” Naomi spoke of bitterness and coming back empty. The narrator nevertheless named Ruth beside her and marked the beginning of barley harvest.
Now women address Naomi with blessing, and the narrator describes her holding the child. The community’s words at arrival and birth frame a real change. We do not need to establish that every woman in the two scenes is the same individual to hear the connection.
5. What changes can you support, and what response should you not invent for Naomi?
We can point to food, a household’s future, Ruth’s recognized love and the child in Naomi’s care. The ending does not quote Naomi announcing that her grief was mistaken or that the dead no longer matter. The new life is a gift; it does not make the earlier losses unreal.
Hold the whole book together
We have followed movement between places, repeated words, practical acts of care, conversations, family responsibilities and the narrator’s framing. The ending gathers these strands rather than replacing them with a single slogan.
8. Test this summary: “Ruth is rewarded with a famous descendant, so the difficult choices and other people are only background.”
The genealogy matters, but that summary discards what the book asks us to read: Naomi’s losses and return; both daughters-in-law’s first responses; Ruth’s commitment to people and God; gleaning and protection; her own request; Boaz’s restraint; and the public process before witnesses. The final women’s speech still names Ruth’s love for Naomi.
Hashem’s gift and the larger family line deepen the story. They do not make human care, lawful action or bereavement unimportant, and they do not promise the same visible outcome to every faithful person.
Return tomorrow: tell the story with evidence
Close the lesson and write five sentences: loss and return; commitment; food and protection; request and public action; birth and family line. Name a passage supporting each sentence. Then explain one place where a character’s speech and the narrator’s report do different work.
9. Check your final recall against the book.
A possible route is 1:1–7 for loss and the journey; 1:16–18 for Ruth’s commitment; 2:8–18 for protection and provision; 3:9–13 and 4:1–10 for request, condition and public action; and 4:13–22 for birth, care and the line to David.
For the voice distinction, compare Ruth’s birth in 4:13 with the neighbors’ “a son ... to Naomi” in 4:17, or Naomi’s “empty” speech in 1:21 with the narrator’s Ruth-with-her and harvest frame in 1:22. Strong recall supplies evidence and preserves the different voices, not just the order of names.
Return to the sources
- Ruth 4:13–22: birth, blessing, care and genealogy.
- Ruth 1:19–22: the arrival scene beside the ending.
- Malbim on Ruth 4:14: the child in the women’s blessing.
- Rashi on Ruth 4:18: the genealogy’s connection with Judah.
- 2 Samuel 5:1–3: David as king of Israel.