Proverbs 31c

 We have established that this chapter contains the wisdom of a woman, a mother of a king. We have also established that this whole chapter is in the literary form of poetry, and that leads us to consider her wisdom as poetic imagery. 

 Here is poetic imagery, thanks to Robert Burns.

O my Luve is like a red, red rose

    That’s newly sprung in June;

O my Luve is like the melody

    That’s sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

    So deep in luve am I;

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

    Till a’ the seas gang dry.

 Now, for those who are literalists, is Burns’ love a rose or a melody or either? Will his love last until the seas go dry? Often the words ‘is like’ alerts us to the presence of a simile. If these words are absent, we could still be dealing with a metaphor. In either case, the allusion is meant to amplify the meaning of the poem.

  31: 13-19 She seeks wool and flax   

and works with willing hands.

She is like the ships of the merchant;   

she brings her food from far away.

She rises while it is still night   

and provides food for her household   

and tasks for her female servants.

She considers a field and buys it;   

with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

She girds herself with strength   

and makes her arms strong.

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.   

Her lamp does not go out at night.

She puts her hands to the distaff,   

and her hands hold the spindle.

 This section of Chapter 31 emphasizes the economic activities of the ideal woman, Lady Wisdom. She works, she looks for opportunities to bring food to the table as well as develop some cottage industries for the household. Implied here are that she imports cloth and food, she purchases and farms a field, she works to produce a profit from her labors. All seem like reasonable endeavors.

 But is any woman capable of doing all these things, things like staying up all night, and yet provide breakfast in the morning? Besides capability, was any woman at 800 B.C. in a legal position to carry out these enterprises by herself? Granted, she seems to be rich and have servants to help, but female ownership of land was extremely rare, so rare that only one case is mentioned in the Bible, the one-generation only inheritance of the daughters of a man who had no sons (Numbers 27: 1-11), and even that was contested (Numbers 36: 1-12).

 One perspective is to see that this is a conglomeration of the things that women might do, not a list of things that one woman must do. Perhaps that is why, in the middle of this section, the writer admits that such a woman would have to be a disciplined athlete to have the strength to do these things. 

 Perhaps the most that we can say is that the ideal woman is Lady Wisdom, that is, God’s Wisdom personified. If she existed on earth, these are the tasks that she would carry out for her husband and her household. While no earthly woman is wisdom personified, nor any earthly man except Jesus, women can look to these to see alternative strategies for managing a working household. 

 Yet, there is another Biblical character who fits the bill: Ruth. When she indicates her preference for Boaz, a close relative of Naomi, Boaz tells her not to be afraid because his fellow townspeople know that she is an ‘eset hayil, a ‘woman of noble character’ (Ruth 3: 11). We dealt with the meaning in the last devotional and saw that the word hayil can mean ‘strength’, ‘efficiency’, or ‘wealth’. 

 But here is the kicker. This word is used of a woman only in Proverbs 31 and Ruth 3. Lemuel’s mother doesn’t appear to be Jewish, and Ruth is certainly not Jewish. She is from Moab. She is enfolded into the Jewish clan system and becomes the great grandmother of David. So this proverbial poem, which probably comes from outside the Jewish line, applies as well to non-Jews who devote themselves to the LORD and find a place in the community.