She rises also while it is still night
And gives food to her household
And portions to her maidens.~Prov. 31: 15
American fundamentalist version:
She gets up early and is constantly cooking for her large household, managing and working at home.
Contextual understanding:
Not only does this woman understand her rights, she actively works to empower others. Having established herself as an economic force, this relationally-focussed woman then goes on to provide employment within her community, including a high standard of employee care. In particular, she provides these things to one of the most socially disadvantaged classes: unmarried women. Maidens.
Why was Ruth directed to Boaz’s fields? She was told to go somewhere safe to glean, and the family took measures to protect and feed her. It says something about the state of affairs in those times, and why this would be such a crucial element in securing the gain of the kingdom. Now, O king, we begin to see the social benefit in protecting this keystone:
Reduced prostitution.
Improved and safer working conditions.
Reduced crime and violence against women, with corollary reduction in children born out of wedlock to exploited mothers.
Distribution of economic power from stable families to highly indebted ones, or to those disinherited by unjust male relatives who hold the family land.
She considers a field and buys it;
From her earnings she plants a vineyard.~Prov. 31:16
American fundamentalist version:
Don’t take all control from your wife! Let her have just enough economic freedom to reinvest her subsistence earnings so as to be able to shoulder the burden of providing for the children while the King of the Castle devotes himself to “God’s work,” like forgoing family responsibilities for ministry or Bible study.
Contextual interpretation:
In Israel, it was impossible to buy land the way we think of it. (Lev. 25:8-28) It reverted in perpetual heritage to each family at the Jubilee. Not only is this woman providing for impoverished families, she’s rescuing them from debt. She doesn’t do this on a spontaneous heart whim, she considers what she’s getting into. She redeems the Jubilee lease price of a field, and then…sows it to grain for a few crop rotations before turning it back to the family?
No.
With her own earnings, she plants a vineyard that will revert to the impoverished landholder and be a perpetual asset to that family, giving them income for potentially hundreds of years to come.
She considers a field. This is not just a matter of careful financial management. She considers the time to Jubilee, the needs and the character of the seller, and the Law which says, “For the land is Mine; you are but sojourners with Me.”
It never says she reaps a single crop. But then, God’s gain is not man’s gain, is it?
Cat, when you are finished with Proverbs 31 could you put this together in a pdf (maybe an ebook?) I would love to work through the whole thing together as a family, and direct others to it who really need to read it. Brilliant work so far and it rings true.
Thanks, Heather. Yeah, that wouldn’t be a problem. OpenOffice has the PDF conversion, and it’s just a click of a button once I have the pages set up in the document.
Thanks for this. This is one of the most enlightening blog series I’ve ever read. My mother just gave a certain Elizabeth George book to my wife, who has also been reading this series, so this is very helpful for dispelling those misapplications.
As I was re-reading the passage last night, I couldn’t help seeing the parallels with Rosie the Riveter (v 17) and the wartime lifestyle of WWII. Rosie was a symbol for all the women who had to step up when the men were fighting overseas, but she was not a real person (though she may have been, that’s not what the poster was about). She was a synthesis of all the hard-working women who had to make the country run with half of its population absent. The passage reads like an old pre-movie newsreel about what the women are doing, with each verse corresponding to a different scene: some are teaching, some are in the fields, some are in the factories, some are in hospitals, etc. There is no one woman who could do it all, though all of them could find inspiration in the poster. I know we shouldn’t superimpose our collective WWII experience on Scripture, but I wonder if this is really the point of the chapter.
Hey, Aaron. I haven’t read Elizabeth George (gee golly gosh, does it show?) but I know the name and the product series. I tend to shy away from anything that claims to be a guide for life and magically becomes a product series…
I love Rosie the Riveter posters. That’s propaganda I can handle. :~)
I think there’s something to be said for the idea that Lemuel was a neighbouring king to Israel. The term alternately translated “oracle” has a specific visionary meaning in the Old Testament, and this is not one of those passages. I’m thinking of the little slave girl who sent Naaman to the prophet for his leprosy, for instance. And I’m wondering if this foreign king’s mother could have been Israeli.
I haven’t finished turning over that thought, but if that’s the case, this is a study for him in what made his neighbours prosperous — one that points back to their God, both in terms of God’s laws and in terms of His salvation and a resultant sanctified walk. It makes sense, then, that she would open by crying out to her son not to engage in godless living, but to be aware of God’s view of humanity and its scope of consequences.
Aaron, I have a much loved picture of my mom taken during WW2. She is all bundled up, wearing jeans, a heavy coat, & a scarf, and she is shovelling snow.
She did that all up & down the street while Daddy was in the Army….There were so few men, young men, who could do that kind of work, because they were all away.
I read your post & that picture came into my mind: My very own Rosie the Riveter. (In this case,;-) Myrtle the snowshoveler, home repairer, and general-woman-of-all-work).
It is thought provoking to see her in Proverbs.Thank you for that image!!
I’m reading this series with great interest. It’s refreshing to see interpretations that aren’t the standard fundamentalist ones.
Thanks, Brenda. It is definitely clearing my head to go back through it…