What Does Proverbs 31 Say About Women? (Proverbs 31)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

What are the marks of a good woman?

In Proverbs 31:10-31, we have a poem structured like an acrostic, with the beginning of each verse starting with a chronologically different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In these verses, the author describes a woman who fears God as virtuous, hardworking, and wise. She is trustworthy, diligent in managing her household, and compassionate toward those in need. She speaks with wisdom and kindness, and her strength and dignity are evident in all she does.

This description echoes much of what has been previously said about the good wife in contrast to the evil woman (5:15–20; 12:4; 18:22). Additionally, when we consider this description alongside earlier references to Woman Wisdom (1:20–33; 8:1–36; 9:1–8), we see that this noble woman reflects Woman Wisdom, symbolizing God's wisdom and even God himself. Essentially, she embodies godly wisdom.^[1] “Contrary to a common notion of woman’s status in the ancient world,” The Jewish Study Bible notes, “this woman has considerable independence in interacting with outsiders and conducting business, even in acquiring real estate; this may reflect the reality of women in the Persian period.”^[2]

To many modern Western readers, this passage feels antiquated and chauvinistic. However, as John Goldingay writes, “One consideration we have to bear in mind is that women (and men) in the West are the victims of a cultural assumption linked with urbanization and industrialization that not only divided the world of home and family from the world of paid employment and the public world but also implied that the latter was the world that counted.”^[3] In other words, for a woman to really be whole, she must be out in the workforce, while those who remain at home aren’t living up to their full potential. But this couldn’t be further from the truth and certainly wasn’t what the author of Proverbs 31 had in mind. Goldingay writes,

Proverbs presupposes a different sort of society—not necessarily wholly better or wholly worse, but different. Imagine an Israelite village of a couple hundred people belonging to three extended families which then comprise a number of households. Each extended family has its senior male figure, and the households also have one. The males of the family spend the daylight hours out in the fields, while the females spend their days in the village baking, cooking, sewing, and looking after the children who are too young to go out into the fields. There’s no implication that the skilled work the women do in the village is less important than the skilled work the men do in the fields. Presumably the senior figures among the men and among the women exercise the leadership as people go about their tasks. It will then be vital to a woman that her husband knows what he’s doing and vital to a man that his wife knows what she’s doing.^[4]

One isn’t better than the other. They work hand in hand. This was and remains God’s intent.