Ruth 4:15
And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.
The word rendered life is the Hebrew nephesh, showing that the word elsewhere translated soul can also mean life. The verse belongs to the closing account at Bethlehem of Ruth's marriage to Boaz, Naomi's kinsman, and the birth of Obed, a story that began with the arrival of Ruth and Naomi at the beginning of barley harvest in the spring. The child given as restorer of life and nourisher of old age is Obed.
The son born, acting as redeemer, would renew and restore Naomi's life and nourish, support, provide for, and comfort her in her old age. Ruth's devoted, filial love and loyalty made her more precious and valuable to Naomi and a greater blessing to her than seven sons. The gift of the child shows the Lord's reward for Ruth's fidelity, faithfulness, and virtue.
The verse displays God's care for the Seed through sweet, simple home life among the children of Israel. The near kinsman who redeems is a type of the Lord. The child is Obed, who became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David, giving posterity a lineage of kings and the royal line from which the Messiah, Christ, came through David.
By bearing this son, Ruth the Moabitess maiden became one of the progenitors and ancestors of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh, bringing her into the line through which Jesus was shown to be a descendant of Abraham, and closing the story of a Moabite woman whose family line leads to the Lord Jesus. Ruth stands as a Moabitess who became a proselyte to the Jewish religion and an ancestress of David on his mother's side, so that Gentile blood entered Jewish veins and a Gentile was gathered into Israel. The Mosaic provision and system for receiving the heathen made the truth and altars of God accessible to Gentiles even then and brought many to proselytism as the first fruits of the future grand gathering of Gentiles in Christ Jesus.