significant point is that the women credit Yahweh with directly giving the gō’ēl to needy Naomi. Now in the preceding verse (4:13), the narrator had said that “Yahweh gave her [Ruth] conception.” Thus, at first glance, the women’s praise seems simply to reinforce the point that Yahweh had provided the newborn. In my view, however, it offers a terse theological commentary on the book’s entire prior chain of events. Granted, Yahweh’s help enabled Ruth to conceive. But there would be no birth at all