Lives of Scripture

Obed's birth closes the book of Ruth on a note of restoration after its opening chapters of famine, death, and loss. Ruth, a Moabite widow who had pledged unwavering loyalty to her Israelite mother-in-law Naomi, married Boaz as her kinsman-redeemer following the legal and covenantal process described in Ruth 3-4. When Ruth bore a son, the women of Bethlehem blessed Naomi rather than Ruth directly, recognizing what his birth meant for her: "a son has been born to Naomi... he will be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him" (Ruth 4:14-15). Naomi took the child and became his nurse, and the neighbor women named him Obed (4:16-17). The book's closing genealogy reveals why his birth mattered beyond one family's joy: "Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David" (4:17,21-22) -- placing a Moabite woman's son directly in the ancestral line of Israel's greatest king. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus later carries this same line forward (Matthew 1:5-6), so that Obed, born to an Israelite widower and a foreign convert, stands as an ancestor not only of David but ultimately of Christ.