Noble Woman (31:10–31)

Wife of noble character (31:10). The book of Proverbs ends with an extensive description of the wife of noble character. It recapitulates much that has been said earlier about the good wife as opposed to the evil woman (5:15–20; 12:24; 18:22). Furthermore, if we read this description in the light of what was earlier said about Woman Wisdom (1:20–33; 8:1–9:8), this noble woman is a human reflection of that Woman who represents God’s wisdom and even God himself. She embodies godly wisdom.

Rewards, Not Promises

Proverbs often holds out the stick and the carrot to motivate people to the best type of behavior and attitudes. Those actions it characterizes as wise often are accompanied by reward and those that it characterizes as foolish are said to result in punishment. Indeed, the ultimate reward for wise behavior is life and for foolish behavior is death.

However, these rewards and punishments are often misunderstood by modern readers, who take them as promises. The proverb form is not in the business of giving out guarantees. For instance, consider Proverbs 22:6:

Train a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old he will not turn from it.

This proverb provides strong motivation for a parent to provide proper education. “The way he should go” is defined by the values and principles in the rest of Proverbs. But what exactly does the second part of the proverb tell us? Again, Proverbs does not give promises; rather it tells us the best course to a desired end, all things being equal. Of course, children are more likely to be godly if they are trained in such a way. But other factors may enter in. Perhaps the child will fall in with a bad peer group against the advice of the parents (see 1:8–19). The parents should nonetheless follow the advice of 22:6 and increase the likelihood that their children will stay on the right path.

“Menna’s Lament” deals with a headstrong child who ignores his father’s advice.

Kim Walton, courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum

It is interesting to note that in many editions of the Hebrew canon, the book of Proverbs is followed by Ruth, who is called a “noble woman” (3:11), and then by the Song of Songs, where the woman plays the leading role in pursuit of the love relationship with the man.

There is nothing like this poem in ancient Near Eastern literature, though there are other more prosaic statements about the value of a good women and advice about how to treat her.

When you prosper and found your house,

And love your wife with ardor,

Fill her belly, clothe her back,

Ointment soothes her body.

Gladden her heart as long as you live,

She is a fertile field for her lord.

Do not contend with her in court,

Keep her from power, restrain her—

Her eye is her storm when she gazes—

Thus you will make her stay in your house. (Ptahhotep)142

Do not control your wife in her house,

When you know she is efficient;

Don’t say to her: “Where is it! Get it!”

When she has put it in the right place.

Let your eye observe in silence,

Then you recognize her skill;

It is joy when your hand is with her,

There are many who don’t know this.

If a man desists from strife at home,

He will not encounter its beginning. (Any)143

There is she who is the praised mistress of the house by virtue of her character. (Papyrus Insinger)144

Young woman spinning and servant holding a fan. Fragment of a relief known as “The Spinner.” Neo-Elamite period (8th century B.C.–middle of the 6th century B.C.)

Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre

Bibliography

Clifford, Richard J. Proverbs. OTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1999. Good solid commentary from a moderately critical perspective. Clifford is particularly attentive to issues of ancient Near Eastern background.

Fox, Michael V. Proverbs 1–9. AB. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 2000. Fox is particularly good at issues of structure, form, philology, and ancient Near Eastern background.

Longman, Tremper, III. Proverbs. BCOTWP. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006. While this commentary does deal with ancient Near Eastern background (though much more extensively in the present work), the main concern is theological message.

McKane, W. Proverbs: A New Approach. OTL. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970. Though superseded by more recent commentaries, McKane is still considered a classic on Proverbs.

Murphy, R. E. Proverbs. WBC. Nashville: Nelson, 1998. Always judicious in his interpretation, Murphy will occasionally discuss ancient Near Eastern background.

Van Leeuwen, Raymond. “Proverbs.” In The New Interpreter’s Bible. Nashville: Abingdon, 1997. This commentary is particularly focused on the original meaning of the text.

Waltke, B. K. Proverbs 1–15. NICOT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004. Waltke and Fox have the longest, most detailed treatments of Proverbs—the former from an evangelical perspective and the latter from a moderately critical perspective. Waltke is superior on theology, while Fox on ancient Near Eastern background.

_____. Proverbs 16–31. NICOT. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. See above.

Chapter Notes

Main Text Notes

1. Lambert, BWL, 147.

2. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:169.

3. Ibid., 1:67.

4. Ibid.,1:5–8.

5. Ibid.,1:63.

6. J. Ruffle, “The Teaching of Amenemope and Its Connection with the Book of Proverbs,” TynBul 28 (1977): 33.

7. J. D. Ray, “Egyptian Wisdom Literature,” in Wisdom in Ancient Israel, ed. J. Day et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995), 17–29.

8. B. Alster, Proverbs of Ancient Sumer, 2 vols. (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 1997).

9. COS, 1:176: 569–70.

10. For further reading on this subject, see J. G. Gammie and L. G. Perdue, ed., The Sage in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1990); J. L. Crenshaw, Education in Ancient Israel (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1998); D. J. Estes, Hear My Son: Teaching and Learning in Proverbs 1–9 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997).

11. So M. Fox, Proverbs 1–9 (AB; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 2000), 72. A translation of Amenemope may be found in COS, 1:47: 115–22. See also K. Kitchen, “The Basic Literary Forms and Formulations of Ancient Instructional Writings in Egypt and Western Asia,” in Studien zu Altägyptischen Lebenslehren, ed. E. Hornung and O. Keel (OBO 28; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1979), 237–82; idem, “Proverbs and Wisdom Books of the Ancient Near East: The Factual History of a Literary Form,” TynBul 28 (1977): 69–114.

12. J. Day, “Foreign Semitic Influence on the Wisdom of Israel,” in Wisdom in Ancient Israel, ed. J. Day et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1995), 65–66.

13. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:191.

14. The following discussion of Sheol was helped considerably by the excellent study by P. S. Johnston, Shades of Sheol: Death and Afterlife in the Old Testament (Leicester, England: Apollos/Inter-Varsity Press, 2002), 69–149. See also D. Katz, The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2003).

15. ANET, 138.

16. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:196.

17. See ll. 58–59 (Lichtheim, AEL, 1:63).

18. Ibid., 2:137.

19. See ll. 4–5 (ANET, 107).

20. Tablet VII, ll. 33–39 (ANET, 87).

21. P. Overland, “Did the Sage Draw from the Shema? A Study of Proverbs 3:1–12, ” CBQ 62 (2000): 424–40, argues that Proverbs summarized from Deuteronomy.

22. A. Millard, “Writing,” NIDOTTE, 4:1290–91.

23. Translated by B. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Potomac, Md.: CDL Press, 1996), 2:496. See comment by K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 97.

24. R. E. Murphy, Proverbs (WBC: Nashville: Nelson, 1998), 22.

25. Fox, Proverbs 1–9, 157.

26. See discussion in S. Parpola, “The Assyrian Tree of Life: Tracing the Origins of Jewish Monotheism and Greek Philosophy,” JNES 52 (1993): 161–208, and A. Sjoberg, “Eve and the Chameleon,” in In the Shelter of Elyon: Essays on Ancient Palestinian Life and Literature in Honor of G. W. Ahlstrom, ed. W. B. Barrick and J. R. Spencer (JSOTSup 31; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1984), 219–21.

27. For Kuntillet ʿAjrud, see Z. Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (London: Continuum, 2001), 370–405; the relevant drawing of the tree is found on p. 382.

28. COS, 1:22–23.

29. See Lambert, BWL, 103; Lichtheim, AEL, 1:71; 3:169.

30. COS, 1:113.

31. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:74 (ll. 582–84), cited in this regard by Fox, Proverbs 1–9, 181.

32. COS, 1:44: 104–6.

33. For ancient Near Eastern analogues, see M. Fox, The Song of Songs and Egyptian Love Poetry (Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 283–7.

34. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:172.

35. Ibid., 3:206.

36. Alster, Instructions of Shuruppak, 35.

37. The view of Fox, Proverbs 1–9, 221.

38. See W. McKane, Proverbs (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1971), 325.

39. F. Cryer, Divination in Ancient Israel and its Near Eastern Environment: A Socio-Historical Investigation (JSOTSup; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1994), 313.

40. P. D. Miller Jr., “Apotropaic Imagery in Proverbs 6:20–22, ” JNES 29 (1970): 129–30.

41. Fox, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love Songs, 52.

42. So Perdue, Wisdom and Cult (SBLDS 30; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1977), 147–49. Or to get money to pay off a religious vow, so K. van der Toorn, “Female Prostitution in Payment of Vows in Ancient Israel,” JBL 108 (1989): 193–205.

43. T. Longman, Song of Songs (NICOT; Eerdmans, 1997), 157; also G. Yee, “ ‘I Have Perfumed My Bed with Myrrh’: The Foreign Woman (ʾissa zara) in Proverbs 1–9, ” JSOT 43 (1989): 53–68. For the garden as a reference to a woman’s private parts in the Bible and the ancient Near East, see S. Paul, “A Lover’s Garden of Verse: Literal and Metaphorical Images in Ancient Near Eastern Love Poetry,” in Tehillah le-Moshe: Biblical and Judaic Studies in Honor of Moshe Greenberg, ed. M. Cogan et al. (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1997), 99–110.

44. A. Brenner, “Aromatics and Perfumes in the Song of Songs,” JSOT 25 (1983): 75–81.

45. T. Longman, Fictional Akkadian Autobiography (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1991), 96–129.

46. ANET, 67.

47. P. W. Skehan, “The Seven Columns of Wisdom’s House in Proverbs 1–9, ” CBQ 8 (1946): 190–97; idem, “Wisdom’s House,” CBQ 29 (1976): 162–80. Each reconstructed speech is supposedly 20 verses long.

48. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:165.

49. COS, 1:129: 449.

50. M. L. Brown, “,” NIDOTTE, 3:1174.

51. For a recent, helpful discussion of the issue, see Johnston, Shades of Sheol, 128–42; H. Rouillard, “Rephaim,” in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, ed. K. van der Toorn et. al. (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 1308–24.

52. Johnston, Shades of Sheol, 142.

53. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:152.

54. See, e.g., the argument of G. E. Bryce, “Omen-Wisdom in Ancient Israel,” JBL 94 (1975): 19–37. However, in our opinion, it is just as plausible to understand the action of the eye to be a secret signal, a gesture, rather than an omen.

55. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:154.

56. Alster, The Instructions of Shuruppak, 37.

57. B. Alster, “The Instructions of Urninurta and Related Compositions,” Or 60 (1991): 150.

58. R. van Leeuwen, “Proverbs,” in New Interpreters Bible Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon, 1997), 5:117.

59. Foster, Before the Muses, 2:540.

60. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:156.

61. Ibid., 3:207.

62. J. M. Lindenberger, The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar (Baltimore: John Hopkins Univ. Press, 1983), 171.

63. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:70.

64. Alster, Proverbs of Ancient Sumer, 1:80.

65. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:164.

66. Ibid., 2:140.

67. Ibid., 2:158.

68. Ibid., 2.139.

69. COS, 1:43: 98–103.

70. For the importance of messengers in the ancient Near East, see G. H. Oller, “Messengers and Ambassadors in Ancient Western Asia,” in CANE, 1465–73.

71. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:164.

72. Ibid., 3:169. See also comment on 1:15.

73. Ibid., 2:153, 155.

74. Lindenberger, The Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar, 49.

75. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:64.

76. Ibid., 2:154–55.

77. Ibid., 2:140.

78. M. A. Grisanti, “,” NIDOTTE, 4:314.

79. Ibid., 317.

80. van Leeuwen, “Proverbs,” 117.

81. Alster, Proverbs of Ancient Sumer, 1:80. See J. Klein and Y. Sefati, “The Concept of ‘Abomination’ in Mesopotamian Literature and the Bible,” Beer-Sheva 3 (1988): 131–48.

82. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:152, 156.

83. Ibid., 2:153.

84. Ibid., 2:140.

85. Ibid., 3:169.

86. Murphy, Proverbs, 120.

87. S. Morenz, Egyptian Religion (Ithaca, N.Y.; Cornell Univ. Press, 1973), 126–30, and B. E. Shafer, ed., Religion in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1991), 48–49.

88. See the excellent discussion of this verse in E. W. Davies, “The Meaning of qesem in Prv 16, 10, ” Bib 61 (1980): 554–56.

89. Lindenberger, Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar, 81.

90. B. Alster, “The Ballade of Ancient Rulers,” in Wisdom of Ancient Sumer (Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2005), 300.

91. A.-M. Kitz, “The Hebrew Terminology of Lot Casting and Its Ancient Near Eastern Context,” CBQ 62 (2000): 207–14.

92. See Ruffle, “The Teaching of Amenemope,” 39.

93. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:136.

94. Ibid., 2:58.

95. Some prefer to explain the “contradiction” by suggesting that the positive statements are sarcastic. However, tone of voice is very difficult to determine.

96. Lambert, BWL, 105.

97. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:59.

98. Ibid., 1:70.

99. Ibid., 1:595.

100. Ibid., 1:71.

101. Ruffle, “The Teaching of Amenemope,” 47.

102. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:157.

103. Ibid., 1:65.

104. Ibid., 3:168.

105. The quotes from Ankhsheshonqy are found in ibid., 3:164, 168, 172, 178.

106. Ibid., 3:190.

107. Ibid., 2:137.

108. Ibid., 2:142.

109. Ibid., 3:189.

110. Ibid., 3:171.

111. Ibid., 2:149.

112. For Amenemope and its relationship to the Bible, see G. Bryce, A Legacy of Wisdom (Cranbury, N.J.: Associated Universities, 1979); J. Ruffle, “The Teaching of Amenemope,” 29–68; H. C. Washington, Wealth and Poverty in the Instruction of Amenemope and the Hebrew Proverbs (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994).

113. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:150.

114. Ibid., 2:162.

115. Ibid., 2:160.

116. Ibid., 1:60.

117. Ibid., 1:65.

118. Ibid., 2:152.

119. This idea may be supported by a Sumerian proverb from the early second millennium B.C., quoted by R. N. Whybray, Proverbs (NCBC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 333, “Possessions are sparrows in flight which can find no place to alight.”

120. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:151.

121. Lindenberger, Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar, 51.

122. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:159.

123. COS, 2:153.

124. Lindenberger, Aramaic Proverbs of Ahiqar, 140.

125. COS, 2:85: 222.

126. R. J. Clifford, Proverbs (OTL; Westminster John Knox, 1999), 226.

127. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:150.

128. Ibid., 3:203.

129. Lambert, BWL, 101.

130. See Setne Khamwas and Naneferkaptah (AEL, 3:133, 136) and comments by P. Cotterell and M. Turner, Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 302–5.

131. Whybray, Proverbs, 367.

132. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:171.

133. COS, 2:131: 341–2.

134. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:65.

135. Ibid., 3:202.

136. Ibid., 2.153–4.

137. Whybray, Proverbs, 403.

138. Lichtheim, AEL, 3:165.

139. Ibid., 3:165.

140. Ibid., 1:76.

141. For Ipu-Wer, see ANET, 441–44; for the apocalyptic texts, see T. Longman, Fictional Akkadian Autobiography, 132–36, 144; R. C. Van Leeuwen, “Proverbs 30:21–23 and the Biblical World Upside Down,” JBL 105 (1986): 599–610.

142. Lichtheim, AEL, 1:69.

143. Ibid., 2:143.

144. Ibid., 3:191.

Sidebar and Chart Notes

A-1. For a discussion of options, see M. Fox, “Ideas of Wisdom in Proverbs 1–9, ” JBL 116 (1997): 24, as well as idem, Proverbs 1–9, 331–46. See also R. J. Clifford, “Proverbs ix: A Suggested Ugaritic Parallel,” VT 25 (1975): 298–306.

A-2. Fox, Proverbs 1–9, 107–8.

A-3. Lichtheim, AEL, 2:149.

A-4. Shuruppak ll. 33–34, 49. See B. Alster, The Instructions of Shuruppak (Mesopotamia 2; Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1974), 37.

A-5. See last five from the Instructions of Ankhsheshonqy. See Lichtheim, AEL, 3:166, 171, 177, 178.

A-6. Among those who affirm that this covenant is with Yahweh, there is disagreement over whether the reference is to the Sinaitic covenant (see D. Kidner, Proverbs [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1964]) or to the marriage covenant that is mentioned in Mal. 2:14 (so G. Hugenberger, Marriage as a Covenant: Biblical Law and Ethics as Developed from Malachi [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998], who provides the best discussion of the matter). This distinction is not important for understanding the import of the verse; it is a serious matter to break any covenant that one has made with Yahweh.

A-7. G. Boström (Proverbiastudien: Die Weisheit und das fremde Weib in Sprüche 1–9 [Lund: Gleerup, 1935], 103–4, argues that covenant here refers to a covenant with a pagan deity. However, it is hard to imagine that the sages would criticize her for breaking a covenant with a false deity; they would be more likely to condemn her for being in such a covenant.