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Ruth 4:18–22, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Ruth 4:18–22
From Perez to David
A ten-name line from Perez to David
Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begat Hezron, Hezron Ram, Ram Amminadab, Amminadab Nahshon, Nahshon Salmon, Salmon Boaz, Boaz Obed, Obed Jesse, and Jesse David.
The list is short and male in form. The story just told will not let readers treat Ruth, Naomi, Tamar in the blessing, or the Bethlehem women as anonymous rungs. A vulnerable household's food, loyalty, risk, and public redemption belong to a history larger than they could see.
The genealogy is not a code for later politics, and it does not make every later king or messianic claim automatic in this unit. It locates Obed in Israel's remembered Judahite line.
How this should shape us
When you tell a family or institutional history, keep women, migrants, laborers, and caregivers visible as people with voices, not as unnamed steps toward a famous man.
Teach it back
Explain Ruth 4:18–22 in your own words. Include the scene's movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters debate whether the genealogy was original or added, whether it is apologetic for David, and how much it telescopes. The canonical final form makes David the horizon; source history remains uncertain.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Ruth 4:18–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ruth.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 4:18–22
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, social, legal, genealogical, and translation notes within the unit.
NET Bible Ruth PDF, printed pp. 501–503, translation and translator notes on 4:18–22
Supports: Authorship and dating alternatives, vulnerability, foreignness, field danger, threshing-floor risk, and legal-social interpretation within directly inspected sections.
Jones, Reading Ruth in the Restoration Period, pp. 188–199, especially pp. 195–199 (linguistic limits, land redemption, levirate distinctions, and Ruth 4)
Supports: A major legal-literary model distinguishing land redemption from levirate marriage and explaining Ruth's purposeful combination.
Berlin, 'Legal Fiction: Levirate cum Land Redemption in Ruth,' printed pp. 3–18, especially pp. 7–13 on the distinct institutions and their literary combination
Supports: Close literary-theological method and a whole-book movement from alienation toward household and monarchical horizon; no unexposed chapter detail.
Ziegler, Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy, introduction preview, printed pp. 3–16
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Ruth 4:18–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ruth
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, morphology, repeated roots, clause relationships, names, and base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ruth.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 4:18–22
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Ruth with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material lexical, grammatical, textual, social, legal, genealogical, and translation notes within the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Ruth PDF, printed pp. 501–503, translation and translator notes on 4:18–22
Open source ↗open access doctoral thesis
Reading Ruth in the Restoration Period: A Call for Inclusion
Edward Allen Jones III
University of St Andrews, 2012
Supports: Authorship and dating alternatives, vulnerability, foreignness, field danger, threshing-floor risk, and legal-social interpretation within directly inspected sections.
Exact location: Jones, Reading Ruth in the Restoration Period, pp. 188–199, especially pp. 195–199 (linguistic limits, land redemption, levirate distinctions, and Ruth 4)
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Legal Fiction: Levirate cum Land Redemption in Ruth
Adele Berlin
Journal of Ancient Judaism 1, 2010
Supports: A major legal-literary model distinguishing land redemption from levirate marriage and explaining Ruth's purposeful combination.
Exact location: Berlin, 'Legal Fiction: Levirate cum Land Redemption in Ruth,' printed pp. 3–18, especially pp. 7–13 on the distinct institutions and their literary combination
Open source ↗publisher author preview
Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy, table of contents and introduction
Yael Ziegler
Maggid Books, 2015
Supports: Close literary-theological method and a whole-book movement from alienation toward household and monarchical horizon; no unexposed chapter detail.
Exact location: Ziegler, Ruth: From Alienation to Monarchy, introduction preview, printed pp. 3–16
Open source ↗