Proverbs 14:1

Every wise woman buildeth her house,.... Not only by her fruitfulness, as Leah and Rachel built up the house of Israel; but by her good housewifery, prudent economy; looking well to the ways of her

Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands. Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands - literally, 'wise women (each one) buildeth,' etc.

CHAPTER 14 He speaks of the woman not to exclude the man, of whom this is no less true, but because the women, especially in those times, were very industrious in managing their husbands’ estates; of which see Proverbs 31. Buildeth her house; maintaineth and improveth her family and estate, as this phrase is used, . Plucketh it down with her hands; either by her idleness and not using her hands, or by her foolish and sinful courses.

Proverbs 14:1 Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.Ver. 1. Every wise woman buildeth her own house.] Quaevis pia perita. Every holy and handy woman buildeth her house; not only by bearing and breeding up children, as Rachel and Leah builded the house of Israel, but by a prudent and provident preventing of losses and dangers, as Abigail; as also by a careful planning, and putting everything to the best: like as a carpenter that is to build a house, lays the plan and platform of it first in his brain, forecasts in his mind how everything shall be, and then so orders his stuff, that nothing be cut to waste. Lo, such is the guise of the good housewife. As the husband is as the head from whom all the sinews do flow, so she is as the hands into which they flow, and enable them to do their office. But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.] With both hands earnestly: she undoes the family whereof she is the calamity, be she never so witty, if with it she be not religious and thrifty, heedy and handy. Be the husband never so frugal, if the wife be idle, or lavish, or proud, or given to gadding and gossipping, &c., he doth but draw water with a sieve, or seek to pull a loaded cart through a sandy way without the help of a horse; it little boots him to bestir himself, for he puts his gets "into a bag with holes." He "labours in the very fire," as Cowper, bishop of Lincoln, did, whose wife burnt all his notes that he had been eight years in gathering, lest he should kill himself with too much study (for she had much ado to get him to his meals), so that he was forced to fall to work again, and was eight years in gathering the same notes wherewith he composed his dictionary, that useful book. How much happier in a wife was that learned Gul. Budaeus. Coniux mea, saith he, sic mihi morem gerit, ut non tractet negligentius libros meos quam liberos, &c. My wife seeing me bookish, is no less diligent about my books, than about my barns, whom she breeds up with singular care and tenderness. How well might he have done, having such a learned helper, as a countryman of his did, of whom Thuanus reporteth, quod singulis annis singulos libros et liberos, reip. dederit: That he set forth every year a book and a child, a book and a child! But this by the way only. Sicut ut ligno vermis, ita perdit virum suum mulier malefica. - Hier. Young’ s Benefit of Affliction. Andreas Tiraquellius.

XIV (1) Every wise woman buildeth her house.—This should be rendered, “The wisdom (literally, wisdoms; see above on Proverbs 1:20; chokhmôth should probably be read here, as there, not chokhmôth) of women buildeth (for each) her house, but (their) folly plucketh it down,” &c. Buildeth her house.—Each person and each good work throughout the household grows, as it were, under her fostering hand. (Comp. Ephesians 2:21.)

CHAPTER XIV Various moral sentiments. The antithesis between wisdom and folly, and the different effects of each. NOTES ON CHAP. XIV Verse 1. Every wise woman buildeth her house] By her prudent and industrious management she increases property in the family, furniture in the house, and food and raiment for her household. This is the true building of a house. The thriftless wife acts differently, and the opposite is the result. Household furniture, far from being increased, is dilapidated; and her household are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and worse educated.

1. Every wise woman] Some texts read the wisdoms (plur. of excellence, as in Proverbs 9:1) of women. And so in next clause, the folly (of women). A slightly different reading is followed by A.V. and R.V., the wise ones of (among) women, buildeth every one her house; σοφαὶγυναῖκες, LXX.; sapiens mulier, Vulg. Comp. Her wise princesses, lit. the wise (ones) of her princesses, Judges 5:29. her hands] her own hands, R.V., as indicated by the order of the words in the Heb.: “with her hands plucketh it down.”

Every wise woman - literally, Wise women. The fullest recognition that has as yet met us of the importance of woman, for good or evil, in all human society.

1. Every wise woman — Literally, as to form, the wisdoms of women; both plural, but with the verb in the singular, showing that the subject is to be taken as singular. Some render, woman’s wisdom buildeth.