What Does Ruth 4:20 Mean?
And Amminadab brought forth Nahshon, and Nahshon brought forth Salmon.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon,THE KEY
The repeated “begat” turns a list of names into a living relay: each life is brought forth into the next generation.
THE MEANING
A life is never a self-contained beginning; it arrives through lives before it and carries the line forward. Here, that continuity becomes visible one name at a time, from Amminadab to Nahshon to Salmon.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a life is self-originating: every name here receives a place in a chain of begetting.
THE ROOT
הוֹלִיד
holid
GROWS FROM
ילד
to bear, bring forth, or beget
“brought forth” in this verse is holid. The Hebrew verb comes from the root ילד, which carries the movement of bringing forth. Its branches reach from a child to generations, so the verse’s repeated act of begetting opens into an ongoing line.
ALSO GROWS
yeled: child
יֶלֶד
The child is what the act of bringing forth produces.
toledot: generations, descendants
תּוֹלְדוֹת
The same root expands a birth into the continuing story of a family line.
עַמִּינָדָב
ʿAmminādāb
GROWS FROM
נדב
to be willing, volunteer, or give freely
“Amminadab” in this verse is ʿAmminādāb. The name is commonly understood as “my people” or “my kin” joined to “willing” or “noble.” It carries a quality of communal willingness in the name of the first ancestor named here, while the verse itself simply records the line.
ALSO GROWS
nadav: to volunteer or offer willingly
נָדַב
This verb gives the name’s final element its sense of willingness.
nedavah: a freewill offering
נְדָבָה
The noun shows the root’s movement into something freely given.
nadiv: willing, generous, noble
נָדִיב
This related form reflects the quality commonly heard in the name’s final element.
THE PATTERN
A life becomes part of a continuing line as it is brought forth by another and carries a name forward.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.The book of the origin of Jesus, the anointed one, son of David, son of Abraham.THE THREAD
And the women who were her neighbors called out a name for him, saying, A son is born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.The word “born” comes from the same Hebrew root, ילד (yalad), as “begat” in this verse. Ruth 4:17 traces the line onward from Obed through Jesse to David; Ruth 4:20 shows earlier links in that same chain.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us