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InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
Prov C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31
Prov 31 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22 V23 V24 V25 V26 V27 V28 V29 V30 V31
In Hebrew, this section is arranged in the form of an acrostic poem. Each of its twenty-two verses begins with a different letter, following the normal order of the Hebrew alphabet. The poem praises the character and abilities of an ideal wife. After an introduction that describes her value (vv. 10–12), the poem describes her activities and achievements in various areas (vv. 13–27). It concludes with praise by her family (vv. 28–29) and all the people (vv. 30–31). The last two verses also serve as the poet’s final conclusion. They summarize what is truly important in an ideal wife.Waltke (page 515) says that the final two verses are praise “by all.” Murphy (page 245) agrees that the “praise” in the final two verses is the “goal or purpose of the poem.”
Some other headings for this section are:
A good wife with many abilities
Description of a Worthy Woman (NASB)
A truly good wife (CEV)
This paragraph describes what the wife does to provide for the needs of everyone in the house. She provides clothes (31:13) and food (31:14–15).UBS (page 655).
This verse describes the efforts of the wife to provide luxury foods for her family.
14aShe is like the merchant ships,
14bbringing her food from afar.
The first line is a simile that compares the wife to merchant ships. The wife brings home food that comes from foreign countries (31:14b). Similarly, the ships bring home cargo that they obtained oversees.Cohen (page 212), UBS (page 656), Whybray (page 427).
She is like the merchant ships,
She is like the large trading ships that are full of cargo from other countries.
Just like ships cross the sea and buy many things to bring back to their own country,
She is like the merchant ships: The phrase merchant ships refers to sailing ships that belonged to merchants or traders. These ships carried many kinds of cargo, including food, from foreign countries. Some other ways translate this line are:
She is like a trader’s ship (NCV)
She is like a ship filled with merchandise from other countries.
bringing her food from afar.
She buys food that comes from far away places.
she also buys food that comes from other countries for her household.
bringing her food from afar: This line means that the wife buys special or expensive foods that came from other countries and brings it home from the market. It does not mean that the wife herself goes to foreign countries to buy food.According to Waltke (page 510), the Hebrew word for “afar” refers to foreign countries in 16 of its 17 other occurrences. According to Fox (page 893), this “verse does not imply that she is herself engaged in international trade.” It means that she bought nonperishable foods from foreign traders, but most of the food for her family was produced locally. Another way to translate this line is:
She brings home food from out-of-the-way places (GNT)
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / infostructure
הָ֭יְתָה כָּאֳנִיּ֣וֹת סוֹחֵ֑ר מִ֝מֶּרְחָ֗ק תָּבִ֥יא לַחְמָֽהּ
she/it_was like_[the],ships_of merchant from,a_distance brings food_of,her
If it would be more natural in your language, you could reverse the order of these clauses. Alternate translation: “She brings her bread from far away, like the ships of a merchant”
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche
לַחְמָֽהּ
food_of,her
See how you translated the same use of bread in [9:5](../09/05.md).
31:10-31 Proverbs ends with a powerful poem celebrating the virtuous wife. The poem’s acrostic arrangement gives an impression of completeness and provides the student with an aid for learning.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The Hebrew text, lemmas, and morphology are all thanks to the OSHB and some of the glosses are from Macula Hebrew.