Proverbs 31: The Virtuous Woman Explained
Almost everyone who has spent time in church has heard Proverbs 31 read at a wedding, a Mother's Day service, or a women's retreat - usually with the hard edges sanded off. Fewer people have actually sat with it line by line, in the order it was written, as the poem it is. That's worth doing, because the passage is stranger, older, and more specific than the tidy summaries suggest. Quick answer Proverbs 31:10-31 is a Hebrew acrostic poem - each of its 22 lines begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet - describing an idealized woman of skill, strength, and reverence for God. It is not a biography of one historical figure or a household chore list. It is wisdom literature: a mother's instruction to her son (Proverbs 31:1) about the kind of character worth marrying, and by extension, a picture of what a life shaped by the fear of the Lord actually produces - competence, generosity, security, and joy that isn't dependent on circumstances. Strength and di...