“For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”
King James Version (KJV)
9:20 Coming behind - Out of bashfulness and humility.
9:22 Take courage - Probably she was struck with fear, when he turned and looked upon her, #Mark 5:33|; Luke 8:47; lest she should have offended him, by touching his garment privately; and the more so, because she was unclean according to the law, #Lev 15:25|.
9:23 The minstrels - The musicians. The original word means flute players. Musical instruments were used by the Jews as well as the heathens, in their lamentations for the dead, to soothe the melancholy of surviving friends, by soft and solemn notes. And there were persons who made it their business to perform this, while others sung to their music. Flutes were used especially on the death of children; louder instruments on the death of grown persons.
Mt 9:21 But touch his garment. The Jews paid to the fringe a superstitious reverence. Sharing the superstition, this woman touched it in hope of cure.