There is no complaint about this, it is not begrudging. She finds joy in
this labor. Why? Because she loves the people for whom she does it. It is
her love that drives her. The Syriac version of this says, “Her hands are
active after the pleasure of her heart.” It is not hard for her to do these
things, it’s not something she begrudges; it is not an unwilling thing
because she loves the people she serves. She loves her work because she
loves her family. She loves her husband. Its value is connected to who she
does it for. Because of such deep devotion to her husband and her children,
she willingly denies herself and takes on the most menial of tasks with the
greatest amount of pleasure, because she understands that they are an
outgrowth of her deep love for those people in her family.
Verse 14, “She is like merchant ships; she brings her food from afar.” Some
of you are saying, “Well, that’s my wife. She finds these coupons and drives
30 miles to get a bargain on orange juice! And eats up more in gas than we
save!” Well, listen–she’s trying! My wife came home the other day and she
said, “I can’t believe it, I found six-packs of Pepsi for 99 cents! We have
got to go get them! So somebody from our house trekked off somewhere and
came back with crates of Pepsi for 99 cents. We can actually start a little
shop and sell Pepsi at our house. Now, we understand the benefit of that,
being frugal and being careful, but in those days the rub was–you had to
walk! She walked long distances to find something that her family would
enjoy.
It doesn’t even say that price was the issue, although we can assume it was.
She is like a merchant ship, I mean, he didn’t say that she is like someone
who takes a short trip–she is like a ship–she takes a journey to get some
food that’s way off in the distance and she has to walk a long way to get it,
but because of the delight she has in providing it for her family she
willingly does that. She finds her complete satisfaction in the joy of
serving. [She] goes great distances to find the very best, certainly for the
best price, to bring the benefit to her family. She’s engaged, you see, in
good planning, careful management, but it’s not just simplistic, it’s not
just bread and water; there are little things that she adds to make it rich
and enjoyable, even if she has to go a long way to get it.
Verse 15 says more about her devotion as a homemaker, “She rises also while
it is still night, and gives food to her household, and portions to her
maidens.” This is before dawn and she’s up. A lamp is always shining in
ancient times, in Middle-Eastern homes, and it was the wife’s duty to keep it
lit. Pour a little oil in after midnight; get up before dawn to make sure it
hadn’t all been burned up. That was her, after midnight trimming the lamp;
up before dawn to grind corn for the next day’s meals or prepare whatever had
to be prepared for her husband and her children and the rest of the
household. Her household is above her own comfort, above her own rest. She
is up long before her husband and children so that she can give food to the
household, and it says, notice in verse 15, “and portions to her maidens.”
This is quite an interesting statement. The word “portions,” some would take
it to mean food that she is sort of feeding her maidens. But, she had some
young girls who worked for her–this is a picture of kind of a large
estate–remember, this mother is talking to her son who will be a king, and
so there are servants there. But this woman, even though she would be a
queen is not indolent or lazy–she works; and the word “portions” in the
Septuagint, they used the Greek word “erga” which means “work” or “labor.”
What it means is, she is up early passing out the tasks to all the maidens to
do their assignments through the day. In Exodus 5:14 it’s used of “labor.”
So she literally gets up in the morning to plan the day’s activities, prepare
the day’s food, pass out the tasks to all the maidens who are going to
assist. She really does manage the house.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
