Ruth 2:21

21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, "He said unto me also, `Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest.'"

Ruth 2:21 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:21

And Ruth the Moabitess said, he said unto me also
Besides the favours he has shown me already, he has given me reason to expect more, for he has given me this strict order:

thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my
harvest;
both barley harvest and wheat harvest; his will was, that she kept following them, and gleaned after them, as long as both harvests lasted. The Septuagint version is, "with my maidens", and which agrees with ( Ruth 2:8 ) , where the order of Boaz is expressed, and with the instructions of Naomi in the next verse, who so understood it; but if we understand it of young men here, there is no contradiction; for both young men and maidens wrought together in the same field, either in reaping or binding up; so that if she kept fast by the one, she also would do the same by the other.

Ruth 2:21 In-Context

19 And her mother-in-law said unto her, "Where hast thou gleaned today? And where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he that took notice of thee." And she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I wrought today is Boaz."

20 And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead." And Naomi said unto her, "The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen."

21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, "He said unto me also, `Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest.'"

22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field."

23 So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law.