14:1 Every wise woman 1 builds 2 her household, 3
but a foolish woman tears it down with her own hands.
1 tn Heb “wise ones of women.” The construct phrase חַכְמוֹת נָשִׁים (khakhmot nashim) features a wholistic genitive: “wise women.” The plural functions in a distributive sense: “every wise woman.” The contrast is between wise and foolish women (e.g., Prov 7:10-23; 31:10-31).
2 tn The perfect tense verb in the first colon functions in a gnomic sense, while the imperfect tense in the second colon is a habitual imperfect.
3 tn Heb “house.” This term functions as a synecdoche of container (= house) for contents (= household, family).