Ruth 4:21

21. Salmon begat Boaz Matthew reads, Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab. It is not absolutely certain that this Rachab is the same as the Rahab who entertained the spies at Jericho, (Joshua 2:1; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25,) but such is the ancient tradition and common belief; and, if true, it is very clear that one or more names have been omitted between Salmon and Boaz, who must have lived some two hundred or more years apart. That such omissions were sometimes intentionally made, a comparison of Ezra’s genealogy, as given in Ezra 7:1-5, with the fuller table of 1 Chronicles 6:3-15, will abundantly show. The same may be seen in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ, (see notes on Matthew 1:17,) where, with a manifest effort to make the register bear the appearance of a symmetrical whole, and with noticeable respect for the sacred symbolism of numbers, he groups all the named from Abraham to Christ under three heads of fourteen generations each, though, as his own list shows, he has omitted several named, which may be supplied from the Old Testament tables.