'Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. 11.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall
have no need of spoil. 12. She will do him good, and not evil, all the
days of her life. 13. She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh
willingly with her hands. 14. She is like the merchants' ships; she
bringeth her food from afar. 15. She riseth also while it is yet
night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
16. She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her
hands she planteth a vineyard. 17. She girdeth her loins with
strength, and strengtheneth her arms. 18. She perceiveth that her
merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night. 19. She layeth
her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. 20. She
stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands
to the needy. 21. She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for
all her household are clothed with scarlet. 22. She maketh herself
coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. 23. Her
husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the
land. 24. She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth
girdles unto the merchant. 25. Strength and honour are her clothing;
and she shall rejoice in time to come. 26. She openeth her mouth with
wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. 27. She looketh well
to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and
he praiseth her. 29. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou
excellest them all. 30. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a
woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the
fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the
gates.'-PROVERBS xxxi 10-31.
This description of a good 'house-mother' attests the honourable
position of woman in Israel. It would have been impossible in Eastern
countries, where she was regarded only as a plaything and a better
sort of slave. The picture is about equally far removed from old-world
and from modern ideas of her place. This 'virtuous woman' is neither a
doll nor a graduate nor a public character. Her kingdom is the home.
Her works 'praise her in the gates'; but it is her husband, and not
she, that 'sits' there among the elders. There is no sentiment or
light of wedded love in the picture. It is neither the ideal woman nor
wife that is painted, but the ideal head of a household, on whose
management, as much as on her husband's work, its well-being depends.
There is plenty of room for modern ideals by the side of this old one,
but they are very incomplete without it. If we take the 'oracle which
his mother taught' King Lemuel to include this picture, the artist is
a woman, and her motive may be to sketch the sort of wife her son
should choose. In any case, it is significant that the book which
began with the magnificent picture of Wisdom as a fair woman, and hung
beside it the ugly likeness of Folly, should end with this charming
portrait. It is an acrostic, and the fetters of alphabetic sequence
are not favourable to progress or continuity of thought.
But I venture to suggest a certain advance in the representation which
removes the apparent disjointed character and needless repetition.
There are, first, three verses forming a kind of prologue or
introduction (vers. 10-12). Then follows the picture proper, which is
brought into unity if we suppose that it describes the growing
material success of the diligent housekeeper, beginning with her own
willing work, and gradually extending till she and her family are well
to do and among the magnates of her town (vers. 13-29), Then follow
two verses of epilogue or conclusion (vers. 30, 31).
The rendering 'virtuous' is unsatisfactory; for what is meant is not
moral excellence, either in the wider sense or in the narrower to
which, in reference to woman, that great word has been unfortunately
narrowed. Our colloquialism 'a woman of faculty' would fairly convey
the idea, which is that of ability and general capacity. We have said
that there was no light of wedded love in the picture. That is true of
the main body of it; but no deeper, terser expression of the inmost
blessedness of happy marriage was ever spoken than in the quiet words,
'The heart of her husband trusteth in her,' with the repose of
satisfaction, with the tranquillity of perfect assurance. The bond
uniting husband and wife in a true marriage is not unlike that uniting
us with God. Happy are they who by their trust in one another and the
peaceful joys which it brings are led to united trust in a yet deeper
love, mirrored to them in their own! True, the picture here is mainly
that of confidence that the wife is no squanderer of her husband's
goods, but the sweet thought goes far beyond the immediate
application. So with the other general feature in verse 12. A true
wife is a fountain of good, and good only, all the days of her
life--ay, and beyond them too, when her remembrance shines like the
calm west after a cloudless sunset. This being, as it were, the
overture, next follows the main body of the piece.
It starts with a description of diligence in a comparatively humble
sphere. Note that in verse 13 the woman is working alone. She toils
'willingly,' or, as the literal rendering is, 'with the pleasure of
her hands.' There is no profit in unwilling work. Love makes toil
delightful, and delighted toil is successful. Throughout its pages the
Bible reverences diligence. It is the condition of prosperity in
material and spiritual things. Vainly do men and women try to dodge
the law which makes the 'sweat of the brow' the indispensable
requisite for 'eating bread.' When commerce becomes speculation, which
is the polite name for gambling, which, again, is a synonym for
stealing, it may yield much more dainty fare than bread to some for a
time, but is sure to bring want sooner or later to individuals and
communities. The foundation of this good woman's fortune was that she
worked with a will. There is no other foundation, either for fortune
or any other good, or for self-respect, or for progress in knowledge
or goodness or religion.
Then her horizon widened, and she saw a way of increasing her store.
'She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.'
She looks afield, and sees opportunities for profitable exchange.
Promptly she avails herself of these, and is at work while it is yet
dark. She has a household now, and does not neglect their comfort, any
more than she does their employment. Their food and their tasks are
both set them in the early morning, and their mistress is up as soon
as they. Her toil brings in wealth, and so verse 16 shows another step
in advance. 'She considereth a field, and buyeth it,' and has made
money enough to stock it with vines, and so add a new source of
revenue, and acquire a new position as owning land.
But prosperity does not make her relax her efforts so we are told
again in verses 17-19 of her abridging the hours of sleep, and toiling
with wool and flax, which would be useless tautology if there were not
some new circumstances to account for the repetition. Encouraged by
success, she 'girdeth her loins with strength,' and, since she sees
that 'her merchandise is profitable,' she is the more induced to
labour. She still works with her own hands (ver. 19). But the hands
that are busy with distaff and spindle are also stretched out with
alms in the open palm, and are extended in readiness to help the
needy. A woman made unfeeling by wealth is a monster. Prosperity often
leads men to niggardliness in charitable gifts; but if it does the
same for a woman, it is doubly cursed. Pity and charity have their
home in women's hearts. If they are so busy holding the distaff or the
pen that they become hard and insensible to the cry of misery, they
have lost their glory.
Then follow a series of verses describing how increased wealth brings
good to her household and herself. The advantages are of a purely
material sort, Her children are 'clothed with scarlet,' which was not
only the name of the dye, but of the stuff. Evidently thick material
only was dyed of that hue, and so was fit for winter clothing, even if
the weather was so severe for Palestine that snow fell. Her house was
furnished with 'carpets,' or rather 'cushions' or 'pillows,' which are
more important pieces of furniture where people recline on divans than
where they sit on chairs. Her own costume is that of a rich woman.
'Purple and fine linen' are tokens of wealth, and she is woman enough
to like to wear these. There is nothing unbecoming in assuming the
style of living appropriate to one's position. Her children and
herself thus share in the advantages of her industry; and the husband,
who does not appear to have much business of his own, gets his share
in that he sits among the wealthy and honoured inhabitants of the
town, 'in the gates,' the chief place of meeting for business and
gossip.
Verse 24 recurs to the subject of the woman's diligence. She has got
into a 'shipping business,' making for the export trade with the
'merchants'--literally, 'Canaanites' or Phoenicians, the great traders
of the East, from whom, no doubt, she got the 'purple' of her clothing
in exchange for her manufacture. But she had a better dress than any
woven in looms or bought with goods. 'Strength and dignity' clothe
her. 'She laugheth at the time to come'; that is, she is able to look
forward without dread of poverty, because she has realised a competent
sum. Such looking forward may be like that of the rich man in the
parable, a piece of presumption, but it may also be compatible with
devout recognition of God's providence. As in verse 20, beneficence
was coupled with diligence, so in verse 26 gentler qualities are
blended with strength and dignity, and calm anticipation of the
future.
A glimpse into 'the very pulse' of the woman's nature is given. A true
woman's strength is always gentle, and her dignity attractive and
gracious. Prosperity has not turned her head. 'Wisdom,' the
heaven-descended virgin, the deep music of whose call we heard
sounding in the earlier chapters of Proverbs, dwells with this very
practical woman. The collocation points the lesson that heavenly
Wisdom has a field for its display in the common duties of a busy
life, does not dwell in hermitages, or cloisters, or studies, but may
guide and inspire a careful housekeeper in her task of wisely keeping
her husband's goods together. The old legend of the descending deity
who took service as a goat-herd, is true of the heavenly Wisdom, which
will come and live in kitchens and shops.
But the ideal woman has not only wisdom in act and word, but 'the law
of kindness is on her tongue.' Prosperity should not rob her of her
gracious demeanour. Her words should be glowing with the calm flame of
love which stoops to lowly and undeserving objects. If wealth leads to
presumptuous reckoning on the future, and because we have 'much goods
laid up for many years,' we see no other use of leisure than to eat
and drink and be merry, we fatally mistake our happiness and our duty.
But if gentle compassion and helpfulness are on our lips and in our
hearts and deeds, prosperity will be blessed.
Nor does this ideal woman relax in her diligence, though she has
prospered. Verse 27 seems very needless repetition of what has been
abundantly said already, unless we suppose, as before, new
circumstances to account for the reintroduction of a former
characteristic. These are, as it seems to me, the increased wealth of
the heroine, which might have led her to relax her watchfulness. Some
slacking off might have been expected and excused; but at the end, as
at the beginning, she looks after her household and is herself
diligent. The picture refers only to outward things. But we may
remember that the same law applies to all, and that any good, either
of worldly wealth or of intellectual, moral, or religious kind, is
only preserved by the continuous exercise of the same energies which
won it at first.
Verses 28 and 29 give the eulogium pronounced by children and husband.
The former 'rise up' as in reverence; the latter declares her
superiority to all women, with the hyperbolical language natural to
love. Happy the man who, after long years of wedded life, can repeat
the estimate of his early love with the calm certitude born of
experience!
The epilogue in verses 30 and 31 is not the continuation of the
husband's speech. It at once points the lesson from the whole picture
for King Lemuel, and unveils the root of the excellences described.
Beauty is skin deep. Let young men look deeper than a fair face. Let
young women seek for that beauty which does not fade. The fear of the
Lord lies at the bottom of all goodness that will last through the
tear and wear of wedded life, and of all domestic diligence which is
not mere sordid selfishness or slavish toil. The narrow arena of
domestic life affords a fit theatre for the exercise of the highest
gifts and graces; and the woman who has made a home bright, and has
won and kept a husband's love and children's reverence, may let who
will grasp at the more conspicuous prizes which women are so eager
after nowadays. She has chosen the better part, which shall not be
taken from her. She shall receive 'of the fruit of her hands' both now
and hereafter, if the fear of the Lord has been the root from which
that fruit has grown; and 'her works shall praise her in the gate,'
though she sits quietly in her home. It is well when our deeds are the
trumpeters of our fame, and when to tell them is to praise us.
The whole passage is the hallowing of domestic life, a directory for
wives and mothers, a beautiful ideal of how noble a thing a busy
mother's life may be, an exhibition to young men of what they should
seek, and of young women of what they should aim at. It were well for
the next generation if the young women of this one were as solicitous
to make cages as nets, to cultivate qualities which would keep love in
the home as to cultivate attractions which lure him to their feet.