Leviticus 22:12-13

22:12 If a priest’s daughter marries a lay person, ¹  she may not eat the holy contribution offerings, ²  22:13 but if a priest’s daughter is a widow or divorced, and she has no children so that she returns to live in ³  her father’s house as in her youth, ⁴  she may eat from her father’s food, but no lay person may eat it.

Deuteronomy 4:4

4:4 But you who remained faithful to the Lord your God are still alive to this very day, every one of you.

Deuteronomy 10:20

10:20 Revere the Lord your God, serve him, be loyal to him and take oaths only in his name.

Joshua 23:8

23:8 But you must be loyal to ⁵  the Lord your God, as you have been ⁶  to this very day.

Psalms 45:10

45:10 Listen, O princess! ⁷ 

Observe and pay attention! ⁸ 

Forget your homeland ⁹  and your family! ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 12:4

12:4 A noble wife ¹¹  is the crown ¹²  of her husband,

but the wife ¹³  who acts shamefully is like rottenness in his bones. ¹⁴ 

Proverbs 31:10

The Wife of Noble Character ¹⁵ 

31:10 Who can find ¹⁶  a wife ¹⁷  of noble character? ¹⁸ 

For her value ¹⁹  is far more than rubies.

Acts 11:23

11:23 When ²⁰  he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain true ²¹  to the Lord with devoted hearts, ²² 

[22:12]  ¹ tn Heb “And a daughter of a priest, if she is to a man, a stranger” (cf. the note on v. 10 above).

[22:12]  ² tn Heb “she in the contribution of the holy offerings shall not eat.” For “contribution [offering]” see the note on Lev 7:14 and the literature cited there. Cf. NCV “the holy offerings”; TEV, NLT “the sacred offerings.”

[22:13]  ³ tn Heb “to”; the words “live in” have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[22:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “and seed there is not to her and she returns to the house of her father as her youth.” The mention of having “no children” appears to imply that her children, if she had any, should support her; this is made explicit by NLT’s “and has no children to support her.”

[23:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “hug.”

[23:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “done.”

[45:10]  ⁷ tn Heb “daughter.” The Hebrew noun בת (“daughter”) can sometimes refer to a young woman in a general sense (see H. Haag, TDOT 2:334).

[45:10]  ⁸ tn Heb “see and turn your ear.” The verb רָאָה (ra’ah, “see”) is used here of mental observation.

[45:10]  ⁹ tn Heb “your people.” This reference to the “people” of the princess suggests she was a foreigner. Perhaps the marriage was arranged as part of a political alliance between Israel (or Judah) and a neighboring state. The translation “your homeland” reflects such a situation.

[45:10]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the house of your father.”

[12:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a wife of virtue”; NAB, NLT “a worthy wife.” This noble woman (אֵשֶׁת־חַיִל, ’shet-khayil) is the subject of Prov 31. She is a “virtuous woman” (cf. KJV), a capable woman of noble character. She is contrasted with the woman who is disgraceful (מְבִישָׁה, mÿvishah; “one who causes shame”) or who lowers his standing in the community.

[12:4]  ¹² sn The metaphor of the “crown” emphasizes that such a wife is a symbol of honor and glory.

[12:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “she”; the referent (the wife) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:4]  ¹⁴ sn The simile means that the shameful acts of such a woman will eat away her husband’s strength and influence and destroy his happiness.

[31:10]  ¹⁵ sn The book of Proverbs comes to a close with this poem about the noble wife. A careful reading of the poem will show that it is extolling godly wisdom that is beneficial to the family and the society. Traditionally it has been interpreted as a paradigm for godly women. And while that is valid in part, there is much more here. The poem captures all the themes of wisdom that have been presented in the book and arranges them in this portrait of the ideal woman (Claudia V. Camp, Wisdom and the Feminine in the Book of Proverbs, 92-93). Any careful reading of the passage would have to conclude that if it were merely a paradigm for women what it portrays may well be out of reach – she is a wealthy aristocrat who runs an estate with servants and conducts business affairs of real estate, vineyards, and merchandising, and also takes care of domestic matters and is involved with charity. Moreover, it says nothing about the woman’s personal relationship with her husband, her intellectual and emotional strengths, or her religious activities (E. Jacob, “Sagesse et Alphabet: Pr. 31:10-31,” Hommages à A. Dont-Sommer, 287-95). In general, it appears that the “woman” of Proverbs 31 is a symbol of all that wisdom represents. The poem, then, plays an important part in the personification of wisdom so common in the ancient Near East. But rather than deify Wisdom as the other ANE cultures did, Proverbs simply describes wisdom as a woman. Several features will stand out in the study of this passage. First, it is an alphabetic arrangement of the virtues of wisdom (an acrostic poem). Such an acrostic was a way of organizing the thoughts and making them more memorable (M. H. Lichtenstein, “Chiasm and Symmetry in Proverbs 31,” CBQ 44 [1982]: 202-11). Second, the passage is similar to hymns, but this one extols wisdom. A comparison with Psalm 111 will illustrate the similarities. Third, the passage has similarities with heroic literature. The vocabulary and the expressions often sound more like an ode to a champion than to a domestic scene. Putting these features together, one would conclude that Proverbs 31:10-31 is a hymn to Lady Wisdom, written in the heroic mode. Using this arrangement allows the sage to make all the lessons of wisdom in the book concrete and practical, it provides a polemic against the culture that saw women as merely decorative, and it depicts the greater heroism as moral and domestic rather than only exploits on the battlefield. The poem certainly presents a pattern for women to follow. But it also presents a pattern for men to follow as well, for this is the message of the book of Proverbs in summary.

[31:10]  ¹⁶ sn The poem begins with a rhetorical question (a figure of speech known as erotesis). This is intended to establish the point that such a noble wife is rare. As with wisdom in the book of Proverbs, she has to be found.

[31:10]  ¹⁷ tn The first word in the Hebrew text (אֵשֶׁת, ’eshet) begins with א (alef), the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “a woman of valor.” This is the same expression used to describe Ruth (e.g., Ruth 3:11). The term חַיִל (khayil) here means “moral worth” (BDB 298 s.v.); cf. KJV “a virtuous woman.” Elsewhere the term is used of physical valor in battle, e.g., “mighty man of valor,” the land-owning aristocrat who could champion the needs of his people in times of peace or war (e.g., Judg 6:12). Here the title indicates that the woman possesses all the virtues, honor, and strength to do the things that the poem will set forth.

[31:10]  ¹⁹ sn This line expresses that her value (Heb “her price”), like wisdom, is worth more than rubies (e.g., 3:15; 8:11).

[11:23]  ²⁰ tn Grk “Antioch, who when.” The relative pronoun was omitted and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style, due to the length of the sentence in Greek.

[11:23]  ²¹ tn BDAG 883 s.v. προσμένω 1.a.β has “remain true to the Lord” for προσμένειν (prosmenein) in this verse.

[11:23]  ²² tn Grk “with purpose of heart”; BDAG 869 s.v. πρόθεσις 2.a translates this phrase “purpose of heart, i.e. devotion” here.