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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 31:10 - 31:10
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A wife, such as she ought to be, is a rare treasure, a good excelling all earthly possession:
10 א A virtuous woman, who findeth her!
She stands far above pearls in worth.
In the connection אֵושׁת חַיִל and the like, the idea of bodily vigour is spiritualized to that of capacity, ability, and is generalized; in virtus the corresponding transition from manliness, and in the originally Romanic “Bravheit,” valour to ability, is completed; we have translated as at Pro 12:4, but also Luther, “a virtuous woman,” is suitable, since Tugend (virtue) has with Tüchtigkeit [ability] the same root-word, and according to our linguistic [German] usage designates the property of moral goodness and propriety, while for those of former times, when they spoke of the tugend (tugent) of a woman, the word combined with it the idea of fine manners (cf. חֵן, Pro 11:16) and culture (cf. שֵׂכֶל טוֹב, Pro 13:15). The question מִי יִמְצָא, quis inveniat, which, Ecc 7:24, proceeds from the supposition of the impossibility of finding, conveys here only the idea of the difficulty of finding. In ancient Jerusalem, when one was married, they were wont to ask: מצא אומוצא, i.e., has he found? thus as is said at Pro 18:22, or at Ecc 7:26. A virtuous woman [braves Weib] is not found by every one, she is found by comparatively few. In 10b there is given to the thought which underlies the question a synonymous expression. Ewald, Elster, and Zöckler incorrectly render the ו by “although” or “and yet.” Fleischer rightly: the second clause, if not in form yet in sense, runs parallel to the first. מֵכֶר designates the price for which such a woman is sold, and thus is purchasable, not without reference to this, that in the Orient a wife is obtained by means of מֹהַר. מֵכֶר, synon. מְחִיר, for which a wife of the right kind is gained, is רָחוֹק, placed further, i.e., is more difficult to be obtained, than pearls (vid., regarding “pearls” at Pro 3:15), i.e., than the price for such precious things. The poet thereby means to say that such a wife is a more precious possession than all earthly things which are precious, and that he who finds such an one has to speak of his rare fortune.