Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:proverbs Chapter 31 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of proverbs, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Proverbs 31
New Revised Standard Version
1The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:
2No, my son! No, son of my womb! No, son of my vows!
3Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.
4It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to desire strong drink;
5or else they will drink and forget what has been decreed, and will pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
6Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to those in bitter distress;
7let them drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
8Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.
9Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. The woman of worth
10A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.
11The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain.
12She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life.
13She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands.
14She is like the ships of the merchant, she brings her food from far away.
15She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household and tasks for her servant-girls.
16She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
17She girds herself with strength, and makes her arms strong.
18She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night.
19She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
20She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.
21She is not afraid for her household when it snows, for all her household are clothed in crimson.
22She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23Her husband is known in the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land.
24She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes.
25Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come.
26She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28Her children rise up and call her happy; her husband too, and he praises her:
29"Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all."
30Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates. ECCLESIASTES
1290ECCLESIASTES Introduction Ecclesiastes is the Latin transliteration of the Greek rendering of the pen-name of the author, known in Hebrew as Qohelet ("Gatherer," traditionally "the teacher" or "the Preacher"). The superscription of the book (1.2) presents Qohelet as "the son of David" who ruled in Jerusalem, evoking the memory of Solomon, king of Israel (968-928 BCE), the consummate sage and gatherer of wealth and wisdom (see
1Kings 3-4; 10). Apart from the superscription and 1.12-2.11, however the author never speaks as king. The epilogue portrays the author as a teacher, rather than as a king (12.9-14). Moreover, the perspective in most of the book is that of an outsider to the royal court (3.16; 4.13-16; 8.1-6; 10.16-20). The date of the book is a matter of dispute, although most scholars argue on linguistic grounds that it should be dated to the postexilic period. The presence of two indisputable Persian loan words ("parks" in 2.5; "sentence" in 8.11) point to a date some time after
450BCE, for there are no Persian loan words or Persian names in the Hebrew Bible that can be dated earlier. The abundance of Aramaisms (Aramaic loan words, forms, and constructions) also points to the postexilic period, when Aramaic became the 'linga franca' in Palestine. A number of specific idioms regarding inheritance, grants, prisons, social abuses, judicial problems, and socioeconomic classes are attested in documents from the Persian period; in no other periods in history do we find such a coincidence of terminology. These features, together with the fact that there are no Greek loan words (or indisputable Greek ideas), suggests that the book should be dated sometime between
450and
330BCE, although many scholars date it a century or two later. The period in question was one of tremendous economic growth, spurred on in no small part by the introduction of standardized ECCLESIASTES
1291coinage by the Persian central government. Money quickly became a commodity, desired for its own sake (cf. 5.10; 7.12; 10.19). Standardized currency helped to democratize economic opportunities, so that it became possible for even the poorest people in society to become wealthy. As in any era of significant economic innovation, the Persian period brought both opportunities and risks to the average person in the empire. The context that Ecclesiastes addresses, however, goes beyond the economic one. The sense of the individual as a small part of a large scene is evident in the political allusions (4.1; 5.7), which should be read against the background of the empire. Even descriptions of life and death reinforce the idea of the powerless individual (8.8). The inevitability of one's fate (3.15; 6.10), the unavoidability of death (3.19), and the repetitions of life (3.1-8) all work together to create a vision of the remoteness, the inscrutability, and ultimately the indifference of the world to the individual. In a vision of bleak grandeur the author faces this indifference, acknowledges it, and admits an inability to transcend it, but nevertheless derives from it a hard-won wisdom: This is how the world is. The author appears to have drawn lessons from the wider wisdom tradition. Yet he approached the issues through the socioeconomic idioms current in his generation to address the preoccupation and obsessions of his audience. Despite the novelty of their environment, the fundamental problems they face about the possibility of coping with life in a world that is inconsistent, if not contradictory, are not new after all (see 1.10). Every generation must deal with the fact that mortals inevitably live in a world in which they have been thrust into and over which they do not control ("all is vanity") and life can only be lived before a sovereign God who alone determines all that happens on earth. ECCLESIASTES 1292