What Does Ruth 3:14 Mean in the King James?

And she lay at his feet until the morning: and she rose up before one could know another. And he said, Let it not be known that a woman came into the floor.

Ruth 3:14 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Hebrew gives the dawn’s recognition of another person and the public knowledge of the encounter two different roots.

THE MEANING

You stand at the edge between being seen and being exposed: recognition does not by itself make every part of your story public. The verse keeps the encounter’s charged privacy and the risk of disclosure in view without explaining away either.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

Being recognized in a vulnerable moment does not mean everyone is entitled to know the whole story.

THE ROOT

יִוָּדַע

yivvadaʿ

GROWS FROM

י־ד־ע

y-d-ʿ

To know, perceive, or become acquainted with.

The request uses a form of ⁨יָדַע⁩ (yādaʿ, “know or perceive”): that the encounter not become known. This word family also names ⁨דַּעַת⁩ (daʿat, “knowledge”) and ⁨מוֹדָע⁩ (mōdāʿ, “kinsman or acquaintance”), placing public information beside personal relationship.

ALSO GROWS

daʿat: Knowledge, understanding

דַּעַת

This branch shows the root can describe what is known; here, Boaz asks that knowledge of the encounter not spread.

mōdāʿ: Acquaintance, kinsman

מוֹדָע

Ruth 2:1 uses this word for Boaz as Naomi’s kinsman, linking knowing with personal relation in the same story.

יַכִּיר

yakir

GROWS FROM

נ־כ־ר

n-k-r

To distinguish, recognize, or identify.

“know another” in this verse is yakir. The dawn clause uses ⁨נכר⁩ (n-k-r) for recognizing another person, while the later request uses ⁨ידע⁩ (y-d-ʿ) for the encounter becoming known. The KJV repeats “know” and “known,” but Hebrew marks recognition by sight and public knowledge as distinct kinds of exposure.

ALSO GROWS

nokhri: Stranger, foreigner

נָכְרִי

The same root can name someone distinguished as a stranger; here, the light threatens to make one person recognizable to another.

hikkir: Recognized, identified

הִכִּיר

This related verb directly expresses recognition, clarifying that the first clause concerns identifying another person.

THE PATTERN

Recognition, relational knowledge, and public disclosure are distinct forms of knowing.

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

Genesis 4:1 · KJVHere ⁨יָדַע⁩ (yādaʿ, “know”) names sexual union, showing that the root can describe deeply personal encounter, not only information.

But the lad knew not any thing: only Jonathan and David knew the matter.

1 Samuel 20:39 · KJVThe same root distinguishes what remains unknown to the lad from what Jonathan and David know between them.

I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

John 10:14 · KJVKnowing is mutual within the shepherd-and-sheep relationship, rather than merely public information.

THE THREAD

And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

Ruth 2:1 · KJV

“Kinsman” translates ⁨מוֹדָע⁩ (mōdāʿ, “kinsman or acquaintance”), from the same ⁨י־ד־ע⁩ (y-d-ʿ) root as “known” in Ruth 3:14. The link lets secrecy and kinship sit side by side: knowing can describe both what becomes public and who belongs within a relationship.

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