What Does Ruth 4:22 Mean in the King James?

And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.

Ruth 4:22 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

David’s name carries the meaning “beloved,” and this verse traces that name through a chain of begetting.

THE MEANING

Your life does not stand alone; what is named in you is carried through a chain of lives and acts of bringing forth. Here, the line moves from Obed, whose name carries the nature of service, toward David, whose name carries belovedness.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The belief that a name or identity stands alone dissolves here: even David appears within a chain of lives before him.

THE ROOT

הוֹלִיד

hōlîḏ

GROWS FROM

ילד

To bear, bring forth, or beget.

Both instances of “begat” come from ⁨ילד⁩, the same root behind “child” and “generations.” The root holds bringing forth and what is brought forth together, so this line reads as one continuous movement rather than disconnected names.

ALSO GROWS

yeled: Child

יֶלֶד

The child and the act of begetting share a root: each name in the line is part of the same movement of bringing forth.

toledot: Generations, descendants, or genealogies

תּוֹלְדוֹת

The word for generations grows from the same root, linking these two acts of begetting to the wider chain they carry forward.

דָּוִד

Dāwīḏ

GROWS FROM

דוד

Beloved; the beloved one.

The name at the end of this line carries belovedness within it. David is not only the final name in the verse; his name gives the chain a relational nature.

ALSO GROWS

dod: Beloved one; also a close kinsman

דּוֹד

The root holds belovedness and kinship together, fitting a name carried through a family line.

dodim: Love or belovedness

דּוֹדִים

This related form shows that the root carries love as a bond between persons, not merely as a name.

עוֹבֵד

ʿōvēḏ

GROWS FROM

עבד

To serve or work.

Obed’s name is formed from ⁨עבד⁩, the root of serving and working. English presents it as a name alone, while Hebrew also lets the nature of service remain audible at the beginning of this line.

ALSO GROWS

ʿeḇeḏ: Servant

עֶבֶד

This noun makes the serving nature within Obed’s name plain.

ʿăḇōḏāh: Service or work

עֲבֹדָה

The related word carries the same root into the work of serving, giving Obed’s name an active quality.

THE PATTERN

What becomes visible in one generation is carried forward through the bringing forth of another.

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Genesis 5:3 · KJVThe verse names a child as the one brought forth through a preceding generation.

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:

Isaiah 11:1 · KJVThe image of a branch growing from Jesse’s roots makes continuity visible as new life arising from what came before.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew 1:1 · KJVThe opening names a person through the generations and relationships that carry his line.

THE THREAD

And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:17 · KJV

The word “born” in this verse and “begat” in verse 22 share the Hebrew root ⁨ילד⁩ (yalad), to bring forth. What English separates into birth and begetting is one root moving through the chain, with Obed at its hinge.

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