Proverbs 31:28

Her children arise up,.... As olive plants around her table; grow up to maturity of age, and ripeness of judgment, and so capable of observing things, and doing the work here ascribed to them: or

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The praises of a virtuous woman; forming a Hebrew acrostic. The 22 years begin with the several 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet consecutively; M.

Her children; whose testimony is the more considerable, because they have been constant eye-witnesses of her whole carriage, and therefore must have seen her misdemeanours, if there had been any, as well as her virtues. Arise up; either, 1. In token of reverence to her, which agrees not to the following clause, wherein the same phrase is understood concerning her husband. Or rather, 2. That they may seriously and industriously apply themselves to the work of setting forth her praises, as this phrase is used, , and oft elsewhere. For sitting being commonly the posture of idleness, men that set about any work are said to rise in order thereunto. Call her blessed, both for her own excellency, and for many happy fruits which they have gathered from her wise and godly education. He praiseth her, in the following words.

Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband [also], and he praiseth her.Ver. 28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed.] As they grow to any height, and consider their beholdingness, so they bless her, and bless God for her: they bless the time that ever they were born of her, and so virtuously bred by her; being ready to say of her, as once Deborah said of Jael, "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent." Blessed be the womb that bare us, and the paps that gave us suck. Her husband also.] Whom she commanded by obeying, as Livia did her husband Augustus. And he shall praise her.] Praise is due to virtue. And albeit, landis non indiga virtus, ilia sed est proprio plane contenta theatro; virtue is her own reward, and she is the best woman, and best to be liked, saith Thucydides, de cuius laude vel vituperio minimus sit sermo, of whose praise or dispraise there is least said abroad; yet forasmuch as praise is a spur. and virtue grows by it, why should it be denied to those who deserve it? Is not a garland here made up by the hand of the Holy Ghost, and set upon the head of this excellent housewife? Neither is it any disparagement that her own husband and children commend her; for her business lying most within doors, who so fit to praise her as those that were ever present with her? and yet neither do they more praise her by their words than by their lives, formed by her to a right posture. Honos alit artes. Virtus laudata crescit. Omnes laudis studio incenduntur.

Verse 28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed] 20. She considers a good education next to Divine influence; and she knows also that if she train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it. 1) Her children are well bred; they rise up and pay due respect. 2) They are taught the fear of the Lord, and obedience to his testimonies; therefore they call her blessed. So they are of a decent, orderly, respectable, religious behaviour. 3) Her husband is so satisfied with her conduct towards himself, his household, his business, and their children, that he praiseth her. He shows himself sensible of her excellence, and encourages her, in her work, by the commendations he bestows.

VIII. The Virtuous Woman. Chap. Proverbs 31:10-31 This short Appendix differs from the other Sections of the Book of Proverbs in having one subject throughout, and in being in form acrostic or alphabetical. Each verse begins with a letter, taken in order, of the Hebrew alphabet. There is nothing in the contents of the Section to throw light upon either its age or authorship. The alphabetical arrangement cannot safely be regarded as a proof of a late date of composition. A similar arrangement occurs in several Psalms and in the opening chapters of the Book of Lamentations; and some at least of these must be assigned to a comparatively early date. It is more probable that the arrangement in question, belonging as it does for the most part to didactic poems, was a device adopted to assist the memory. (See The Book of Psalms, Vol. i. Introd. p. xlviii. in this Series; and Bp Perowne on Psalms 25:1.) The LXX reverse the order of two letters of the Hebrew alphabet here. The same two letters are transposed in the Hebrew in three (chaps, 2, 3, 4) out of the four alphabetical poems in the Book of Lamentations. See Comm. on that Book in this Series. Introd. pp. 354, 5. The picture here drawn of woman in her proper sphere of home, as a wife and a mother and the mistress of a household, stands out in bright relief against the dark sketches of woman degraded by impurity, or marred by imperfections, which are to be found in earlier chapters of this Book (Proverbs 2:16-20; Proverbs 5:1-23; Proverbs 7; Proverbs 22:14; Proverbs 23:27-28, and Proverbs 11:22; Proverbs 19:13; Proverbs 21:19). Corruptio optimi pessima. We have here woman occupying and adorning her rightful place, elevated by anticipation to the high estate to which the Gospel of Christ has restored her. It is an expansion of the earlier proverb: “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord” (Proverbs 18:22).

28. Her children… call her blessed — As a consequence of the above ordering and control of her family, her children grow up in virtuous habits, regularity of life, and respectfulness of demeanour.