Ruth 2:22

22 To whom her mother-in-law said, My daughter, it is better, that thou go out to reap with his damsels, lest in another field any man against-stand thee.

Ruth 2:22 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 2:22

And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law
Observing the charge Boaz had given her, she thought fit to advise her upon it:

it is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens;
that is, go out in the morning with them, set out from Bethlehem when they went to work, and so continue with them all the day:

that they meet thee not in any other field;
the meaning is, either that men might not meet her in another field alone, or rush upon her at once and unawares, and reproach her, or beat her, or indeed force her; or else that the servants of Boaz might not meet her, or see her in another field, and report it to their master, who would be offended at her; and take it as a slight of his kindness to her; which latter seems rather to be the sense.

Ruth 2:22 In-Context

20 To whom Naomi answered, Blessed be he of the Lord, for he [hath] kept also to dead men the same grace, which he gave to the quick. And again she said, He is our kinsman. (To whom Naomi answered, May the Lord bless him; yea, the Lord hath given the same favour to the living, as to the dead. And she said to Ruth, He is our kinsman.)
21 And Ruth said, Also he commanded this thing to me, that so long I should be joined to his reapers, till all his corns were reaped. (And Ruth said, And he also commanded this to me, that I should be joined to his reapers, until all his grain was harvested.)
22 To whom her mother-in-law said, My daughter, it is better, that thou go out to reap with his damsels, lest in another field any man against-stand thee.
23 And so Ruth was joined to the damsels of Boaz; and so long she reaped with them, till both the barley and the wheat were closed in the barns. (And so Ruth was joined to Boaz's young women; and she worked with them, until all the barley and the wheat were harvested, and enclosed in the barns.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.