Boaz was a wealthy landowner in Bethlehem and a relative of Naomi's deceased husband. He showed great kindness to the Moabite Ruth when she gleaned grain in his fields. As a kinsman-redeemer, he took Ruth as his wife and became the grandfather of King David—and thus part of the lineage of the Messiah.
7She said, 'Please let me gather and glean among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She came and has been on her feet from early this morning until now, resting only a little in the shelter."
9Keep your eyes on the field where they are harvesting, and follow along behind my young women. I have ordered the men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink the water the men have drawn.
11Boaz answered her, "I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and came to a people you did not know before.
12May the LORD repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and dip your piece in the wine vinegar." So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over.
10Then he said, "The LORD bless you, my daughter. This last kindness of yours is greater than the first, for you have not gone after the young men, whether poor or rich.
13Stay here tonight. In the morning, if he will redeem you, good—let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until morning."
1Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there. Just then the redeemer he had spoken of came by, and Boaz said, "Come over here, friend, and sit down." So he turned aside and sat down.
5Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, in order to raise up the name of the dead over his inheritance."
9Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, "You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and everything that belonged to Kilion and Mahlon.
10And I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to raise up the name of the dead over his inheritance, so that his name will not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his town. You are witnesses today."
17The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
5Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,*
Traduction
The Greek repeats the verb ἐγέννησεν ("begot," literally "fathered") in every link of the chain. For oral reading the verb is carried over from the opening of the list, so each name is joined simply by "the father of" — a rhythm that lets the long roll of names move without a stumble. The preposition ἐκ ("out of, from") marks the mother from whom the son came; rendered here as "by Rahab" and "by Ruth," the traditional English idiom for maternal descent. Alternatives such as "whose mother was Rahab" or "of Rahab" are equally faithful but heavier on the tongue. The names appear in their familiar Old Testament English forms (Boaz, Obed) rather than transliterations of the Greek spellings (Boes, Iobed).
Critique textuelle
Greek manuscripts differ over the spelling of these two names. For Boaz some read Βόες, others Βόοζ (closer to the Greek Old Testament) or Βοόζ; for Obed, Ἰωβήδ, Ὠβήδ, or Ἰωβήλ. The differences are matters of transcribing Hebrew names into Greek and do not affect the identity of the persons or the sense of the verse; English renders both by their standard Old Testament forms.
Linguistique
Boaz renders Hebrew Bōʿaz, a name of uncertain meaning, often explained as "in him is strength." Obed is Hebrew ʿŌbēd, "one who serves" or "worshipper." Rahab appears here as Ῥαχάβ, with a consonant reflecting the Hebrew guttural, whereas the Greek Old Testament writes her name Ῥαάβ — one of several signs that the writer knows Semitic forms of the names as well as Greek ones. Note also that ἐκ τῆς Ῥαχάβ uses the feminine article, which alone signals that the person named is a woman.
Histoire
Rahab was the woman of Jericho who sheltered Israel's spies; Ruth was a Moabite widow who came to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law. Old Testament genealogies of this line (in the closing verses of Ruth and in the Chronicles lists) name only the fathers; the mothers are added here deliberately. Both women stand outside Israel by birth, and Moabites in particular were excluded from the assembly by law — yet both are remembered as ancestors of the royal house. The span from Salmon in the generation of the conquest to David is compressed into very few names, which suggests the list is arranged to be memorable and schematic rather than exhaustive.
Théologie
Four women are named in this genealogy — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah in the next verse — and each comes with an irregular or foreign background. Their presence at the head of the family tree of the Messiah has long been read as a quiet announcement of the Gospel's reach: that God's saving purpose runs through outsiders and through broken situations, and that the nations are woven into the line of Israel's King from the beginning. Some interpreters stress instead the theme of God's sovereign grace working against human expectation, others a defense against later slander about Jesus' birth; the readings need not exclude one another.