Tool Beta

Is It Actually in the Bible?

Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.

let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her: reads like grain that somehow belongs to "purpose," or grain with a mission

"Of purpose" was just 1611 phrasing for "on purpose": deliberately.

KJV word, meaning shifted
Ruth 2:16

Ruth 2:16, in every translation this tool compares.

What is actually going on

In Ruth 2:16, Boaz orders his young men: "let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not." Modern English pairs "purpose" with "on," not "of," so the phrase can trip a reader into parsing it oddly. But "of purpose" was simply the standard 1611 way of saying "deliberately" or "intentionally." Boaz is quietly instructing his workers to drop extra grain on purpose so Ruth can glean more than she'd normally be entitled to: a deliberate act of provision dressed up as an accident.

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