Bible Strands
Ruth 2:9
Let your eyes be on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after these girls. Indeed, I have ordered the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Boaz issues these instructions to Ruth while she gleans in his field, immediately after commanding her to remain near his servant girls.
The words — The Hebrew ʿênayik (your eyes) and ṣiwwîtî (I have commanded) frame the verse’s dual focus on visual guidance and authoritative protection.
The thread — The prohibition against being touched mirrors the protective decrees in Genesis 20:6 and Psalm 105:15, where authority forbids harm to those under safeguard.
Why it lands — The text explicitly grants Ruth physical safety and water access before addressing her foreign status, requiring the reader to note that structural provision precedes personal favor.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.
Cross-references
- 1 John 5:18 We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him.
- Genesis 20:6 Then God said to Abimelech in the dream, “Yes, I know that you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against Me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
- Psalms 105:15 “Do not touch My anointed ones! Do no harm to My prophets!”
- Proverbs 6:29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- Matthew 10:42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
- 1 Corinthians 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
- Genesis 24:18 “Drink, my lord,” she replied, and she quickly lowered her jar to her hands and gave him a drink.
- Job 19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.
- John 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”