‘ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Do you not hear, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, nor pass from here, but remain here fast by my maidens. Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and you go after them. Have I not charged the young men that they must not touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of what the young men have drawn.”
Recognising that Ruth was related to him, and admiring what he knew of her, Boaz either went over to her or summoned her to him. And then he adjured her remain in his portion of the land, following after his male and female reapers, and sticking close to his female servants. He assured her kindly that he had charged his young men not to touch her, so that she would be quite safe, and that when she was thirsty she must feel free to drink of the vessels of water drawn by his young men from the local spring. This would be a great boon as it would mean that she did not have to take time off from her gleaning to satisfy her thirst at the same spring.
We have an indication here of some of the dangers of gleaning for a good-looking young woman. Unscrupulous field owners, or their servants, may well often have taken advantage of such young women. They were unprotected, except to some extent by the Law, and many would take no notice of what happened to them.