She considereth a field, and acquireth it; of the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
The woman of worth in this poem is not only busy at home — here she looks over a piece of land, buys it, and turns her own earnings into a vineyard. Commentators read this as practical wisdom about work and money, and also as a picture of how those who love Christ use the world.
The closing poem of Proverbs is a portrait in parts, and this verse begins a new part:
Seven things — the perfect number — are specifically noted of her. Her faithfulness (vv. 11-12); Her industry (vv. 13-15); Her thrift (vv. 16-19); Her benevolence (v. 20); Her providence (vv. 21-25); Her moral excellences (vv. 26-27); and Her reward (vv. 28-31).
One writer explains how wide the word behind "virtuous" is, and where such a life comes from.
Virtue here clearly does not only mean moral purity. It covers all the marks of faithfulness, diligence and dependability that the chapter describes. How refreshing to see in any good measure these qualities in a woman. But it is impossible apart from the grace of God having worked in her heart.
Notice the order of the two verbs. Thinking comes first, and only then the money changes hands.
The field was first considered — there was exercise. She did not act on the impulse of the moment, but only bought it after calm and careful deliberation. Then she paid the price and made it hers. Some lands on earth come to people by inheritance. But the church, at war on earth, must buy every square inch of ground it gains, and pay a high price for it — often in toil and tears, in money, and sometimes in blood, even life itself.
One writer starts from the word behind "buys" and follows the picture into the New Testament.
The word for "buys" here is really "acquires". She is busy seeking gain for her husband. She wants him to have the property, and she wants to make good use of it. In New Testament language, "the field is the world" (Matt. 13:38), and the Lord Jesus, in the sacrifice of Himself, "sold all that He had" to buy the field (Matt. 13:44). So the believer, joined to the Lord as by a marriage bond, has a very real title to this vast possession: "all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:21-23). How important to insist that we are not the world's, but the world is ours. The world is only a servant for our use. We are not to be entangled by it, but to use it as far as it serves the interests of our Lord.
The same writer then turns this into a test of practice.
In practice we may not have looked at the world this way, as this woman did. So we may not have "acquired" it — that is, had it under our feet for the gain of our Lord. But "this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith" (1 John 5:4).
She could have left the field as it was. She saw what it could become, and she worked for someone else's sake.
Are we not rebuked by the diligence of this woman? As she looks at this field, she sees what it could be as a vineyard — something that will produce fruit for the one she loves. And there is nothing on-and-off about her work. Should our considerations on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ be any less than this? Should we not be constantly on the watch to procure and to plant that which will bear fruit for the pleasure of the Lord?
Buying the ground is only the beginning. The work that follows calls for strength.
Once bought, the field must be "planted" with witnesses, local churches, or individual believers, so that it bears fruit for God. This calls for hard work. We must put on strength and make our arms strong, "strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might".
She plants the vineyard with the fruit of her hands. The chapter ends with her reward.
She is not only praised: she is also given the fruit of her own hands. The servants who gained by trading with their Master's pounds were allowed to keep what they had gained (Luke 19:24-26). In the same way, the goodness of God richly rewards those who have laboured truly for Him. We shall find that what we have gained for Him has really been for ourselves too.
- Consider — she thinks before she spends. She buys the field after careful thought, never on a sudden impulse.
- Buy — she pays for the field; she does not inherit it. Ground gained for Christ costs toil, tears and sometimes life itself.
- Own — the believer is not the world's. The world is ours, a servant we use for the Lord's interests, not a trap that holds us.
- Plant — a bought field is still bare ground. It needs witnesses planted in it to bear fruit, and that work takes real strength.
- Receive — she plants with the fruit of her hands, and in the end she is given the fruit of her hands. What we gain for Him turns out to be ours too.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and maketh strong her arms.
The last chapter of Proverbs paints a portrait of "a woman of worth," and here the picture turns to her strength. Older translations read "she girds her loins" — the picture of tying up long clothes before hard work — so where does that strength come from, and what is it for?
The phrase comes from everyday life in a land of long, loose clothing. Before hard work, people gathered up their clothes and tied them at the waist. One writer draws the lesson from that, using the older wording of the verse:
When you gird the loins, you draw up the loose flowing garments and tie them tight, so nothing hinders your movement or your work. So 1 Peter 1:13 urges us, "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober." Our minds should be under proper control, with no loose ends allowed to hinder our spiritual progress. This honest self-discipline of our minds is true spiritual strength; and so our arms too will be strengthened for work. It is the precious principle of going "from strength to strength" (Psalm 84:7).
The same word turns up in other places in the Bible. One writer lines them up:
"Gird up now your loins like a man," God said to Job, twice, and to others also. Elijah girded up his loins and ran before Ahab (1 Kings 18:46). There are many other references — Behemoth, for example, the dinosaur: "his strength is in his loins" (Job 40:16). But Scripture uses exactly the same word of the woman of worth. We don't seem to hear so much about her. Taken together these references confirm what we have always heard: the loins are the seat of strength.
after_note: restores who "his" is There is other teaching also. The loins are connected with the mind. "Gird up the loins of your mind" (1 Peter 1:13).
Just before this verse she buys a field and plants a vineyard. One writer reads that field as ground taken for God, and says what the planting costs:
Once the field is bought, it must be "planted" with witnesses, assemblies, or people, to bring forth fruit to God. This calls for strenuous work — loins must be girded and arms strengthened, "strong in the Lord and the power of His might."
One writer links her girded loins with the Lord Jesus taking a towel to wash His disciples' feet:
"She girds her loins with strength, and strengthens her arms." Strength marked all her activities and service. Our blessed Lord, as recorded in John 13, girded Himself with a linen towel and washed His disciples' feet, giving them in this an example to "wash one another's feet." Divine strength will mark all our movements and service while we stay occupied with the Lord, and as we abide in Him and He in us.
The girdle holds the rest of the armour in place. So the girding comes first — before the work and before the fight:
Girding is the application of truth to the soul — the intimate dealing of the word with the will — the movements of the heart. This is arming for conflict in a most practical and effective way; but we must do it in the presence of God before we meet the enemy. The soldier's girdle fastens his other pieces of armour more closely to him, so that he is able to march and strong to fight. "You have girded me with strength for the battle," says the psalmist (Psalm 18:39)… It is the bracing up of the affections, the whole inner man, for Christ and for the things of Christ. When the heart clings to the Lord, as the garment clings to the loins under the tight belt, the enemy cannot reach the gates of the soul.
- Secured — the loose garment is drawn up and tied so nothing hinders the work. Applied to the mind, it means no loose ends left trailing.
- Strength — the loins are the seat of strength. Scripture uses the same word of Behemoth in Job and of this woman.
- Supplied — her arms are strong for hard work because she is "strong in the Lord and the power of His might," not because of self-effort.
- Shown — Christ girded Himself with a towel to serve. His example is the pattern, and abiding in Him is the power.
- Settled — the girding comes first, in God's presence. The heart is braced for Christ before the work or the battle begins.
She perceiveth that her earning is good; her lamp goeth not out by night.
Two pictures sit side by side in this verse: a trader checking her goods and a lamp burning through the dark hours. Commentators read both as marks of a life that knows the worth of what it handles and refuses to let its light fail.
The first half of the verse describes a woman who has tested her own goods and knows they are worth selling. One writer applies this to the way we hold out the truth to others.
We must be sure that what we are offering others is good, fully convinced of it. Someone has said that the world presents its fiction as though it were true, while many speak of the things of the Lord, His truth, as though they were fiction. That second fault will mark us if we are not enjoying the good of the things we talk about.
Her verdict on her merchandise is not a guess. It comes from handling the goods. Older wording calls her merchandise "good"; the ESV says "profitable." The same holds for spiritual things: the sense of what is good grows as we use it.
Handling divine things deepens the soul's conviction that this is true good. Is this not plainly stated for us in Philippians 1:9-10? "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent." This sense of what is good will fill us with good, so that evil has no place. Then the lamp of testimony will burn all through the night of our short stay on earth. But if people choose the world's goods just because they "see no harm in them," they clearly have not seen the "good" that runs through everything belonging to God. Their lamp will grow dim in the same measure.
See how this joins the two halves of the verse. A dull sense of what is good is not a private matter. It shows up in a fading lamp. The test is searching: the standard is not "I see no harm in it" but a taste for what is excellent.
Older translations use the word "candle" here; the ESV says "lamp." Scripture uses such a light in two ways: for real light and as a picture. Her steady flame also stands in contrast to another light in this same book.
In the Old Testament this word covers any light, real or symbolic. Job said of God, "when His lamp shone upon my head" (Job 29:3). "The lamp of the wicked will be put out" (Proverbs 24:20). But of the wise woman it says, "Her lamp does not go out at night" (Proverbs 31:18). In the New Testament the word means a lamp. In some passages it stands for the testimony of God. Those who receive it should show it and not hide it (Luke 8:16; Luke 11:33, 36).
A lamp that burns all night needs a supply. One writer places this verse among the everyday uses of oil in Israel.
Oil was one of the most useful products of the land of Israel, both for home use and for sacred use. People put it to three main uses: food, light, and anointing. The virtuous woman was well supplied with oil — "her lamp does not go out at night" (Proverbs 31:18).
One writer reads the whole chapter as a picture of the Lord's people while He is away. On that reading, profitable merchandise is gain from work done for Someone who is coming back, and the night is more than the hours after sunset.
Such happy service for the Lord whets the appetite for more: "She perceives that her merchandise is profitable"; she sees the profit there is in work for the good Man who is away but is coming back. Night comes on, but her lamp still burns. Earlier the chapter said, "She rises while it is yet night". It is now the night of our Lord's rejection and no time for sleeping. But the morning dawns, thank God. "The night is far gone; the day is at hand", the watchman calls. So let us never let the little lamp of our testimony grow dim or go out. Let it shine on "till the day dawns and the shadows flee away".
- Taste it. She has handled her own goods and knows they are good; we cannot offer others what we have not proved ourselves.
- Prove it. Handling divine things deepens that conviction. A growing taste for what is excellent leaves evil no room.
- Guard it. "I see no harm in it" is the mark of a soul that has not perceived the good — and such a lamp dims by degrees.
- Feed it. A lamp burns all night only if someone keeps it filled with oil. Light that lasts needs a supply.
- Shine on. The night of the Lord's rejection is no time for sleeping. The little lamp of testimony burns until the day dawns and He returns.
She putteth her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle.
The closing poem of Proverbs describes a woman of worth, line by line. Each verse starts with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This line puts two simple tools into her hands. Why does a portrait of excellence stop to watch her spin thread?
Both tools belong to hand-spinning, the craft that turns raw fibre into thread. One writer explains what they are, and what using them cost:
Think how much time and work it takes to keep pulling out and straightening the fibres, until they form one long thread for knitting clothes or weaving cloth. The distaff is a split stick that holds the wool or linen. The spindle puts the twist into the long thread. This work is long and painstaking. But this woman loved her husband and household so much that she was willing to spend these long hours, so the material for their clothes would be ready. How much time do we spend studying the Word of God, comparing Scripture with Scripture, so that when the moment comes we have something ready to serve God's people?
The verse names her hands twice. The next verse names them again, reaching out to others. One writer reads the two verses together, and counts how often the chapter returns to her hands:
These two verses show her hands rightly and busily occupied — first at home, and then for others outside. She had no spinning wheel, so she did it all by hand. She held the long spindle in one hand and the distaff in the other, and long hours produced only small amounts. Yet this is far better than the boredom of having everything made by machine, and selfishly piling up clothes nobody needs. Here is a sharp question for us today: since we have more, do we not have more to give away? For this virtuous woman stretches out her hand to others too. As if one hand were not enough, the other hand follows gladly, and her whole heart shows in her generosity. Why do we not follow her example more gladly? Note also that this chapter speaks of her hands seven times — a beautiful sign that God finds her works perfect.
The poem is not a jumble of virtues. It groups her qualities, and this verse closes one group:
Seven things — the perfect number — are noted of her. Her faithfulness (vv. 11-12); her industry (vv. 13-15); her thrift (vv. 16-19); her benevolence (v. 20); her providence (vv. 21-25); her moral excellences (vv. 26-27); and her reward (vv. 28-31).
The same writer sets her spinning inside the home, where her hands are always full:
The model woman has a house to keep. God commands women who want to please Him to be "pure, working at home" (see Titus 2:5)... Her work is all at home. In this circle her hands are always happily full, as every true wife and mother surely will. Food and clothing for her household fill her days. She prepares wool and flax for the distaff and loom, and food for her household. She gives out work to her maidservants too, and lets none of them live with her in idleness.
Commentators do not stop at housework. One gives a key for reading the whole poem on more than one level:
This passage holds several lessons for us. Some apply to us as individuals. Others show the relationship of Israel and the church to Christ. In Scripture the man usually pictures the position God gives us, while the woman shows the state or condition that belongs to that position.
This picture is not an unreachable ideal. Ruth received the same title from the townspeople who watched how she lived:
Her godly life and her whole manner showed her faith in the LORD beyond mistake. As Boaz testified, the wise and upright men who sat in the gate of Bethlehem knew that she was "a woman of worth". The ruling elders had already recognised her as one who excelled in the qualities that gave a housewife in Israel her worth, or "virtue".
- Hands — the verse names them twice; the chapter names them seven times. One writer takes this as a sign that her works are perfect before God.
- Hands at work — spinning was slow and painstaking; she gave the long hours because she loved her husband and household.
- Hands full — her sphere is her house, where food and clothing fill her days, and she lets no one live in idleness.
- Hands reaching — the next verse stretches those same hands out to others; if we have more than she did, we have more to give away.
- Hands proved — the elders at the gate gave Ruth this same title, so the portrait describes a life someone really lived.