Obed

The righteous Obed is one of the ancestors according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the son of Boaz and Ruth the Moabitess, the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.

The Book of Ruth tells how Ruth, left a widow, did not abandon her mother-⁠in-⁠law Naomi, but came with her to Bethlehem, taking the God of Israel as her own God. There she gleaned in the field of Boaz, a kinsman of Naomi, and Boaz took her as his wife according to the Law. From their marriage Obed was born.

The women of Bethlehem rejoiced at his birth and told Naomi that a son had been born to her, who would be a comfort in her old age. Naomi took him in her arms and raised him, and the neighbours gave him the name Obed, which means servant.

Scripture records no other deeds from his life, but his name is kept in the genealogy of Christ in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Through him, a woman of a foreign people entered the line from which the Saviour would be born. The Church remembers him together with all the righteous ancestors of Christ on the Sunday before the Nativity of the Lord.