Women who fear the Lord, model for us how the church should live.

Proverbs 31:10–31—Embodiment of wisdom or a real ideal person?

Some believe Proverbs 31 is a final description of wisdom. This interpretation would make the passage a metaphor, showing us the value of wisdom one last time.

Others believe this passage is a description of King Lemuel’s mother. Though it is unclear who the passage describes, an argument can still be made that Proverbs 31:10–31 is an actual person. Every time the term for “Wife” occurs in Proverbs, it describes a real person. The canon of Scripture plays a role in determining this, too (the order/arrangement of the books of the Bible). In our English Bibles, Ecclesiastes follows Proverbs, but in the Hebrew Bible, Ruth follows Proverbs 31. And in Ruth 3:11, she is described with the exact words of Proverbs 31:10—אשׁת־חיל (eshet hayil). These are the same words used to describe the excellent wife in Proverbs 12:4.

The passage is arranged in three main sections:

vv. 10–12—The worth of the wife.
vv. 13–27—The activity of the wife.
vv. 28–31—The praise of the wife.

Another unique feature of this passage is that it is written as an acrostic—meaning, every verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequential order, something like A–Z. This poetic device highlights the wholeness and total value of the woman who fears the Lord.

Some notable women of Scripture:

Deborah and Jael—Judges 4–5
Hannah—1 Samuel 1
Esther
Elizabeth—Luke 1
Mary—Luke 1:42
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah—Matthew 1