Proverbs 31:25-27

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Proverbs 31:25 sn The idea of clothing and being clothed is a favorite figure in Hebrew. It makes a comparison between wearing clothes and having strength and honor. Just as clothes immediately indicate something of the nature and circumstances of the person, so do these virtues.
2. Proverbs 31:25 tn Or “strength and splendor have been her clothing.” This is a verbless clause so it takes its time frame from the context. It may be a comment on the goods she traded to the merchants. Or it may be a word picture about her character, in which case “dignity” may be a better rendering than “splendor.”
3. Proverbs 31:25 tn The first word of the sixteenth line begins with ע (ʿayin), the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
4. Proverbs 31:25 tn The verb וַתִּשְׂחַק (vattiskhaq) is a preterite and therefore is past tense.sn Here “laugh” is either a metonymy of adjunct or effect. The point is that she is confident for the future because of all her industry and planning.
5. Proverbs 31:25 tn Heb “day.” This word is a metonymy of subject meaning any events that take place on the day or in the time to come.
6. Proverbs 31:26 tn The Hebrew verb (פָּתְחָה, pat^ekhah) is the perfect form of a dynamic verb and should be understood as past tense or perfective. Most of the Hebrew perfect verbs in this description of the wife have been translated as simple past tense because in this portrait her actions are examples that typify her character whether she did then often or rarely. For example, although this woman bought a field (vs 16), that does not mean that she regularly traded in real estate or even that she bought more than one field in her lifetime. However it would be outside the character developed in this portrait to think that she only once said something wise. The Hebrew verbal construction is not specifically modal (“would open her mouth with wisdom”). However the word picture of opening the mouth is one that pictures the start of an activity that continues. For example in Ps 109:2, when the Psalmist complains that the wicked have opened (Hebrew perfect of פָּתַח, patakh) their mouth with deceit, he does not mean that they told only one lie. The opened mouth pictures talking, in contrast to the closed mouth which pictures silence (cf. Isa 53:7).
7. Proverbs 31:26 tn The first word of the seventeenth line begins with פ (pe), the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.sn The words “mouth” (“opened her mouth”) and “tongue” (“on her tongue”) here are also metonymies of cause, referring to her speaking.
8. Proverbs 31:26 tn The Hebrew phrase תּוֹרַת־חֶסֶד (torat khesed) is open to different interpretations. (1) The word “law” could here refer to “teaching” as it does frequently in the book of Proverbs, and the word “love,” which means “loyal, covenant love,” could have the emphasis on faithfulness, yielding the idea of “faithful teaching” to parallel “wisdom” (cf. NIV). (2) The word “love” should probably have more of the emphasis on its basic meaning of “loyal love, lovingkindness.” It also would be an attributive genitive, but its force would be that of “loving instruction” or “teaching with kindness.”
9. Proverbs 31:27 tn The first word of the eighteenth line begins with צ (tsade), the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. tn This is the only participle used in the description of the woman. Since participles receive their time frame from context, this should be understood to be part of the past time frame of the passage. Here it provides the contrast to the idleness mentioned in the latter half of the verse.
10. Proverbs 31:27 tn The imperfect verb (תֹאכֵל, toʾkel) is used in its past habitual sense. The verbs describing the woman from verses 12-29 include 19 perfects and 9 preterites which describe actions with past time references. Thus the four imperfect verbs that describe her (vv. 14, 18, 21, 27) should be understood as modal and operating in a past time frame.
11. Proverbs 31:27 sn The expression bread of idleness refers to food that is gained through idleness, perhaps given or provided for her. In the description of the passage one could conclude that this woman did not have to do everything she did; and this line affirms that even though she is well off, she will eat the bread of her industrious activity.