Short answer: Ruth 4:18–22 gives the answer directly: Salmon became the father of Boaz (4:21). Boaz is therefore the son of Salmon, and the genealogy runs from Perez through Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, and Nahshon to Salmon, then to Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and David. The list is not a side note about Boaz alone. It shows how the family of Ruth and Boaz fits into the larger line that leads to David.
A closing genealogy that gathers up the whole story
Ruth 4:18–22 closes the book with a formal record rather than a scene. No one speaks, no one acts; the narrator simply lists fathers and sons, each link stated in the same short way. The chain runs from Perez to David in ten names, and its plainness is the point. After the dialogue and movement of the harvest fields and the city gate, the story settles into a quiet line of descent. This is the kind of record Israel kept for tribal and family memory, and here it is placed at the end like a seal pressed onto the whole account.
The list does not stand alone. It follows the moment when the neighbor women name the child Obed and the narrator notes that he is the father of Jesse, the father of David (4:17). So the genealogy restates in formal shape what the story has just shown in a scene. The book opened with famine, widowhood and Naomi's emptiness; it ends with a full house and a family line reaching toward Israel's throne. Perez, the first name, is the son of Judah and Tamar in Genesis, so the line is set inside Judah's tribe and its covenant life.
Read this way, the closing verses are a summary of the story's outcome, not a detached appendix. The same providence that carried a Moabite widow to a field and a kinsman to the gate is the providence that carries a family line across generations. Yet the list makes no promise that faithful families will receive famous descendants or lasting security. It reports what God did here, in this line, and leaves the reader looking toward the son of David who would come from it.
The genealogy also prepares the reader for what follows the book. Names like Nahshon and Salmon place Boaz's family within Israel's earlier history, and the final link, David, points ahead to the monarchy the later books will describe. The quiet chain thus does two things at once: it anchors the private story of Naomi and Ruth in the public history of a nation, and it shows that God's work often runs through ordinary generations rather than dramatic moments. What looks like a bare list is really the story's last word about where all of this was heading.
The plain record of a family line
The closing verses of Ruth read like a ledger. Each line follows the same shape: one man became the father of the next, from Perez to Hezron, Hezron to Ram, Ram to Amminadab, and on through Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and finally David. The opening line calls this a history of the generations, which is how the Bible often introduces a family record. The names receive no comment, no moral verdict, no explanation. The only thing the text asks us to notice is the unbroken sequence, one generation handing life to the next.
The key term is father, and here it carries its ordinary sense: physical descent, the passing of life from a man to his child. Nothing in these lines suggests adoption, tribal affiliation, or metaphor. The writer is telling us who came from whom. That plainness matters, because it means the list cannot be made to carry more than it says. It is not a promise about faithful families receiving notable children, and it is not a guarantee of security for anyone's descendants. It is a record of descent, and we should let it be exactly that.
One detail stands beyond bare descent: the list ends at David. After the private story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, the writer lifts our eyes to a throne and to a name every Israelite knew. The genealogy also reaches backward to Perez, a name that carries its own shadow from Genesis. So the quiet family record is set inside a much larger story. God was working through ordinary births and ordinary names, and the line he preserved ran through a Moabite woman and a Bethlehem farmer toward a king, and beyond him toward Christ.
The closing verses of Ruth read like a ledger. Each line follows the same shape: one man became the father of the next, from Perez to Hezron, Hezron to Ram, Ram to Amminadab, and on through Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and finally David. The opening line calls this a history of the generations, which is how the Bible often introduces a family record. The names receive no comment, no moral verdict, no explanation. The only thing the text asks us to notice is the unbroken sequence, one generation handing life to the next.
The key term is father, and here it carries its ordinary sense: physical descent, the passing of life from a man to his child. Nothing in these lines suggests adoption, tribal affiliation, or metaphor. The writer is telling us who came from whom. That plainness matters, because it means the list cannot be made to carry more than it says. It is not a promise about faithful families receiving notable children, and it is not a guarantee of security for anyone's descendants. It is a record of descent, and we should let it be exactly that.
One detail stands beyond bare descent: the list ends at David. After the private story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz, the writer lifts our eyes to a throne and to a name every Israelite knew. The genealogy also reaches backward to Perez, a name that carries its own shadow from Genesis. So the quiet family record is set inside a much larger story. God was working through ordinary births and ordinary names, and the line he preserved ran through a Moabite woman and a Bethlehem farmer toward a king, and beyond him toward Christ.
Salmon, the Father of boaz
The genealogy answers the question plainly: Salmon became the father of Boaz (4:21). Read the list forward and the shape is clear. Perez leads to Hezron, Hezron to Ram, Ram to Amminadab, Amminadab to Nahshon, Nahshon to Salmon, and Salmon to Boaz. Then Boaz to Obed, Obed to Jesse, and Jesse to David (4:18–22). So Boaz is not the end of the line but a link in it. The passage names Salmon as his father and then keeps counting generations until it reaches David, the son of Jesse.
The list does not stand alone. It follows the scene where the women of Bethlehem name the child and the narrator notes that he is the father of Jesse, the father of David (4:17). The genealogy then fills in the generations behind that note, running from Perez forward. Perez matters because he is the son of Judah and Tamar in Genesis, so the line is anchored in Israel's tribal history. The book that opened with famine, widowhood and Naomi's emptiness closes with a full house and a family line reaching toward the monarchy.
What the passage claims is a family connection, not a formula. It shows how Ruth and Boaz fit into the larger line leading to David, and it invites the reader to see the whole story's outcome in these names. It does not promise that faithful families will receive notable descendants or earthly security. Naomi's arms are full in 4:16, and the line is real, but the comfort rests in God's steady work through ordinary generations, not in a guarantee that faithfulness produces prominence. The answer to the question is Salmon, and the point of the list is David.
The closing verses read like a ledger, but they carry the weight of the story. Each name is a person who lived, married, and raised children in the ordinary rhythm of Israel's tribal life. The narrator does not dress them up or explain their failures. He simply records that the line held. That restraint is worth noticing. The book has spent its chapters on famine, grief, risk, and quiet loyalty, and now it sets those years inside a chain of generations. The genealogy says that none of it was wasted, and that the child in Naomi's lap belongs to something larger than one household.
There is also a forward pull in the list. It ends at David, but David is not the final horizon of the story. The reader who knows the wider Scriptures knows that the line does not stop with a king. The genealogy is a bridge, and bridges are meant to be crossed. It tells us where Boaz came from and where his family was going, and it leaves the reader looking ahead. The question about Boaz's father is answered in a single name, but the answer opens onto a much longer road.
Where readers disagree about the genealogy
The closing verses of Ruth move from story to list. After the townswomen name the child and the narrator ties him to Jesse and David in 4:17, the book ends with ten names running from Perez to David. Boaz's father appears plainly: 4:21 says Salmon became the father of Boaz. Yet careful readers notice that this list is selective. It begins with Perez, not with Judah, and it covers centuries in a handful of names. Some read it as a complete father-to-son chain, each man the immediate parent of the next. Others observe that biblical genealogies sometimes compress generations, so they treat the names as a genuine line of descent without insisting every link is immediate. The text itself does not say which reading is right.
A second question concerns Salmon. Elsewhere Scripture connects a Salmon with Rahab, and readers have long wondered whether this is the same man. Some think so and find a striking thread running from Jericho to Bethlehem to David. Others are not persuaded, noting that names recur and that the text here says nothing about Salmon's wife or origins. The list in 4:18–22 gives no comment, no explanation, no footnote. It simply names fathers and sons and arrives at David. Readers who press the question should be honest that the passage leaves it open. What the text does say is that Boaz's father was Salmon, and that the line leads to David.
That restraint matters for how this genealogy is used. It is not given to guarantee that faithful families will produce famous descendants or enjoy lasting security. Naomi's story included famine, widowhood and loss before this child arrived, and the list itself passes over most of its names in silence. What the genealogy does is locate Boaz and his son within a real family line that reaches David, and through David reaches the promise of a coming king. The center stays fixed: Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, and God worked through ordinary generations. The gaps remain gaps, and the text does not ask us to fill them.
A genealogy that runs from perez to David
The book closes not with a scene but with a list. Verses 18–22 trace ten generations from Perez, son of Judah and Tamar, down to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. The names are bare, without story or comment, and that plainness is the point. A family that began with a widow returning empty and a foreign woman gleaning in a field ends up named in the line of Israel's king. The narrator does not explain the significance. He simply sets the names down and lets the reader see where the small story has been heading all along.
Notice where Boaz sits in the list. Verse 21 places Salmon before him and verse 21 names Boaz as Obed's father, so the child born to Ruth in verse 17 becomes the grandfather of David. The women of Bethlehem named the boy, and the genealogy confirms what their naming implied: this ordinary household is now part of something far larger than itself. The book has spent four chapters on famine, gleaning, a risky threshing floor and a legal transaction at the gate. None of that looked like the making of a dynasty. Yet God was working through it, quietly, without announcing himself at each step.
The New Testament opens by tracing Jesus' ancestry through this same line, and Matthew's list includes Ruth by name alongside Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba. That does not mean this passage preaches Christ directly; the text says nothing about a Messiah. It shows instead the kind of family the gospel comes from: outsiders included, ordinary people faithful in small things, a lineage with rough edges. David's greater son is Jesus, and the road to him runs through a Moabite widow and a Bethlehem farmer. Read the list as evidence of God's patience, not as a promise that faithful families will produce famous descendants or secure futures. The guarantee belongs to God's purpose, not to our pedigrees.
The genealogy ends where the story began: with a name. Boaz's father Salmon appears in verse 21, and the line runs on past Obed to Jesse to David, then beyond the page into generations the book never sees. Readers who know what comes next know that David's line will stumble badly, and that the prophets will still speak of a shoot from that stump. The list is not a trophy case. It is a record of God carrying a promise through people who could not have arranged it themselves, and it invites us to trust him with the parts of our own lives that feel as unremarkable as a list of names.
What faithful response looks like in ordinary life
Read the closing verses of Ruth slowly and notice how little of it looks like a climax. After the kindness at the threshing floor and the witnesses at the gate, the book ends with names. Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. Most of these men did nothing recorded here. Some were simply born and grew up and had children in the ordinary way. Yet Ruth 4:18 says, "Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron," and the list that follows carries the story forward. God's work in this book turns out to look a great deal like family life: births, names, generations, and quiet years nobody wrote down.
If your own story feels too small or too broken to matter, this ending is worth sitting with. The family in these verses has grief in it. Naomi lost a husband and two sons in Moab, and Ruth lost a husband too. The line that ends in David runs through famine, widowhood, and a foreign woman who had no claim on Israel's inheritance. None of these people earned their place in the list. Grace is the ground under them, and grace is the ground under your ordinary faithfulness too. The right response is trust and patient obedience in the place God has put you, not a calculation about what your faithfulness will produce.
So let this genealogy move you toward gratitude rather than toward expectations God has not promised. It does not guarantee that a faithful family will produce famous descendants or enjoy earthly security. What it shows is that God was at work across generations, often invisibly, and that he was not ashamed to be associated with ordinary people and their losses. Ruth 4:17 says, "They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David." The women who said that could not see what it meant. Neither can you see the whole of what God is doing in your ordinary days. Trust him there, and give thanks for grace you did not earn.
Biblical fidelity check
The closing verses read as a bare list, so the care belongs in noticing what the text does not say. Each line repeats the same plain pattern: one man became the father of the next. The list is introduced as a history of the generations, the ordinary way a family record begins. No ages, no stories, no commentary on character. The only break in the rhythm is the last step, where the line arrives at David. Reading carefully here means resisting the urge to import details from elsewhere and letting the names stand as given.
Readers genuinely differ over the gaps. Some treat the chain as complete father to son; others note that biblical genealogies sometimes skip generations and read the names as a line of descent without insisting every link is immediate. A related question is whether Salmon is the Salmon tied to Rahab elsewhere, and answers vary. The text settles neither point. What stays central is that Boaz's father is named as Salmon and that the line runs to David.
Reading Ruth 4:18-22 alongside other passages
Follow the story behind these names by reading how Ruth came to Bethlehem and met Boaz in Ruth 1: Famine, Loss, and Loyal Love, and how the threshing floor scene was resolved in Ruth 2: Ruth Gleans in Boaz's Field. Then trace the theme of redemption through Ruth 3: Ruth's Bold Request at the Threshing Floor and see how the line of David continues in Ruth 4: Boaz Redeems Ruth and the Family Line.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Boaz's father according to Ruth 4?
Ruth 4:21 names Salmon as the father of Boaz. The verse reads, “and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed”. Salmon appears earlier in the same list as the son of Nahshon, so the line runs Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz. The passage states the relationship plainly and adds nothing about Salmon's life or character. Everything else the book says about Boaz stands on its own, and this single line supplies his father's name.
Why does the book of Ruth end with a genealogy?
The genealogy is the point the whole story has been moving toward. Ruth 4:17 has just named the child Obed and identified him as the father of Jesse and the grandfather of David, and 4:18–22 then spells out that line step by step. The list reaches back to Perez, a name that carries the family into the wider story of Judah, and forward to David, the king. So the ending tells readers that this quiet story of famine, gleaning, and a kinsman redeemer belongs inside Israel's larger history. The list is not there to guarantee that faithful families will produce famous descendants. It identifies what God was doing in this particular family.
How is Boaz related to David?
Boaz is David's great-grandfather. Ruth 4:21–22 traces it: Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. Ruth 4:17 makes the same link in narrative form when the women name the child and the text notes that he is the father of Jesse, the father of David. That means Ruth, the Moabite woman who pledged herself to Naomi, is David's great-grandmother. The genealogy is brief and moves quickly, but it places Boaz three generations before David in the line.
