“A wife of noble character, who can find?”(Prov 31:10)
In most evangelical circles, the Proverbs 31 woman is the epitome of biblical womanhood, the quintessential godly woman. Scores of books and bible studies have been written, conferences attended, and sermons preached on what it means to be a Proverbs 31 woman. When we dive into this passage, we soon realize there is a wide gap between the woman of Proverbs 31 and the quiet, domestic, well-behaved woman of “biblical femininity.” This gap exists because of several reasons, not the least of which is that we often bring to our reading an expectation or presupposition from our own culture and tradition…our own bias as to what constitutes biblical femininity. We bring to the text an expectation that women are to be meek, submissive, quiet, mild-mannered, and subservient to the men in their lives. We read it into the text because we expect it…and then we teach it as “biblical femininity.” Furthermore, the meanings of words change over time. It’s imperative for us to understand the meaning at the time it was written rather than cling to what we think it means based upon a modern definition.
Eschet Chayil, a Woman of Valor
Proverbs 31 begins with what appears to be a rhetorical question that highlights the rarity of the wife about to be described. She is said to be an “eschet chayil.” “Eschet” is a form of the Hebrew word for woman or wife, “ishshah.” “Chayil,” means “strength, power, might” among other things, and is often used to describe a number of men, including Boaz, several of David’s mighty men, and numerous times in Joshua to describe the men of Israel in the battles they fought. “Eschet chayil” is the female counterpart of “gibborey-chayil,” or mighty men of valor.
Similar to “ezer kenegdo” in Genesis 1, “eschet chayil” has the connotation of strength and power, particularly in the context of this poem. Although English translations leave readers oblivious to the militaristic language, when we look at the “structure and diction employed in the poem, we realize it closely resembles that of a heroic poem celebrating the exploits of a warrior.” (1)
- “Her husband…lacks nothing of value(v. 11);” the Hebrew word translated “value” is the Hebrew term for “booty,” or spoils of war(v. 11).
- “…she provides food for her family(v. 15); “food” is the word “prey.”
- “She sets about her work vigorously” in verse 17 is, in the original language, the phrase “girded up her loins,” a phrase often used to speak of those preparing for battle, or action, particularly that which is strenuous or difficult.
- “She laughs at the days to come” (v. 25, NIV), is literally “laughing in victory.”
When the OT was translated into Latin, the word chosen for “chayil” in this verse was “virtus,” from which we get our word virtue(McCarthy, 2019, p. 5). In English, virtue means “moral excellence,” and when used of a woman, “chastity.” But, in Latin it had a wider range of meanings including “manliness, excellence, character, courage.” Our English understanding of the word virtue, when applied to a woman, is stripped of what ‘chayil’ means in this passage and left us with the belief that biblical femininity, a “Proverbs 31 woman” refers a woman who is discreet, chaste, of moral excellence. From the Hebrew “chayil” to the Latin “virtus,” we find that biblical femininity encompasses attributes we typically believe are masculine…valor, valiant, courage, manliness, bravery.
In Proverbs 31, the woman of valor is pictured as a victorious warrior returning home with the plunders of war, laughing in her victory; she has been on the hunt and returned with her prey. It is the husband who is the one waiting for the return of the victorious, spoils-laden warrior. The intention of this heroic poem is, according to OT scholar Ellen F. Davis, “to underscore the central significance of a woman’s skilled work in a household-based economy” (1). It cannot easily or seriously be compared to a housewife in modern evangelical circles. Nor should we reduce this hymn of praise celebrating the strength and valor of a godly woman to a mere checklist for wives who aspire to biblical womanhood. At the bare minimum, our understanding of what is means to be a godly woman must account for the diversity we find within the pages of the Bible, or it cannot be called “biblical.” Biblical womanhood, and biblical femininity, needs to be unchained from the narrow confines of patriarchy and released to encompass all that the Bible praises and exemplifies regarding women.
Endnotes:
1. Evans, R.H. (2012). A year of Biblical womanhood : how a liberated woman found herself sitting on her roof, covering her head, and calling her husband “master,” p. 75