The Lord used Martin Luther mightily to start the Protestant Reformation. While other Reformers like John Calvin would refine Protestant doctrine, Luther was a bull in a China closet who brought the Middle Ages to a close and ushered in the Modern Era of history. And like Athanasius before him, Luther stood contra mundum, against the world. However, beside this flawed but faithful bulwark of the kingdom was a woman named Catherine von Bora.

His marriage to her brought immediate changes, for Luther once wrote: “Before I was married the bed was not made for a whole year and became foul with sweat. But I worked so hard and was so weary I tumbled in without noticing it.” She brought order, cleanliness, and dignity to their household that was a great comfort to his weary and frequently sick flesh. Indeed, for the all the spiritual and intellectual weight that Luther bore, Katie’s burdens were no smaller.

For Katharina, [her] calling involved caring for Luther, supporting his work and travels, nurturing their children, and a wide variety of tasks involving their parsonage. She renovated the abandoned Augustinian monastery that served as their home; hosted the guests that stayed in their forty rooms; served meals to thirty or forty people regularly and banquets for more than a hundred; and created a self-sustaining household by purchasing and cultivating farmland for gardens, orchards, and animals to provide food for family and guests–as well as making bread and cheese and brewing beer. (The Runaway Nun)

She even saved his life. On one occasion, Luther was invited to friend’s wedding, but Katie dreamed that murderers were lying in wait for him along the way and begged him not to go. He took her counsel and wrote a letter of apology to his friend. Two weeks later, his friend wrote back: “It has been discovered that four young noblemen were lying in wait for you, because you rescued their sisters from the convent and the brothers as a consequence are now having to support and endow them. Therefore, my friend, kiss your Katie’s hand and thank her for, under God’s guiding, she has kept you from danger.”

Her deep respect for Luther was evident by her always calling him Herr Doktor and speaking to him the formal second person. And Luther respect and deep affection for his wife was also seen by often calling her Mrs. Dr. Katherine Luther (for she was an herbalist) and his playfully referring to her as “my lord Katie,” which is exampled in the following letter to a friend:

My lord Katie greets you. She rides, drives, and plants our fields, buys our cattle and pastures them and over and above she has a bet of fifty gulden that she will read the whole Bible by Easter. She is hard at it and has begun the fifth book of Moses.

But perhaps the highest praise for this wife was that he called Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians his Katherine von Bora.

I begin with Katie Luther because like her great husband, she was flawed but faithful. Indeed, she is perhaps one of the clearest examples in church history of the excellent wife that our text describes.

As we dive into this text, let us remember that while the description of this poem is of a wife, it is still a part of the oracle that King Lemuel’s mother taught him. Thus, it is a poem written by a woman about the ideal woman and addressed to a man, which means that it is an error to limit this passage to women’s Bible studies. Both husbands and wives would do well not to forsake mother’s teaching (1:8), and non-married men and women will find plenty of applicable wisdom here, especially if you desire to be married in the future.

THE VIRTUOUS WOMAN // VERSES 10-12

The twenty-two verses before us are an acrostic poem with each verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It shares many themes with another acrostic poem, Psalm 112, and Lemuel’s mother may have had that psalm in mind whenever she composed this one. Indeed, like many of the acrostic poems in the Bible, Lemuel’s mother may have used it to teach her son the alphabet.

A – A woman of excellence who can find?
B – Better than jewels is she by far.
C – Continually confident is his heart in her.

It is very fitting conclusion to the book of Proverbs because the first nine chapters are filled with calls for the writer’s son to find wisdom as the most valuable of treasures. And this wisdom is repeatedly personified as a woman. Indeed, folly is also personified as a seductive adulteress. It is fitting then for Proverbs to conclude with calling young men to find a wise and virtuous wife.

An excellent wife who can find? That is the question that drives this poem. Obviously, Lemuel’s mother knew the powerful impact, for good or ill, that a wife can have upon a husband because she now spends more twice the length of her original counsel (vv. 1-9) teaching him how to recognize an excellent wife. Proverbs 18:22 tells us that “he who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.” But finding an excellent wife is the real treasure, for she is far more precious than jewels. As I briefly noted of verse 3, the word that the ESV translates excellent is chayil, and it is the same word translated strength in verse 3. So, we could call her the strong wife or, as the Septuagint does, the virtuous wife.

Indeed, while verse 3 counselled men not to give their strength to women, a strong wife is entirely worthy of this strength, for while riches are as unstable as water, she does him good and not harm, all the days of her life. She is a perpetual source of good for him. Douglas O’Donnell writes:

Despite this description, we need not think that a good wife must be perfectly good. This is, after all, an idealized portrait in which all blemishes have been intentionally and artistically left out. So we don’t see her flaws. What we see, though, is that she is good to him–not perfectly good but consistently good. (52)

But in our morally ambiguous age, we would do well to ask what doing good means. The simplest answer is to go to goodness as a fruit of the Spirit, and as we noted in our study through Galatians, each virtue in that list ought to be defined by the others. Thus, we do not have the right to define doing good to our spouse however we want; rather, doing them good means being loving rather than selfish, joyful rather than grumbling, peaceful rather than quarrelsome, patient rather than volatile, kind rather than bitter, faithful rather than fickle, meek rather than proud, and self-controlled rather than self-gratifying. 

Because of this, verse 11 tells us that the heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She has her husband’s utmost confidence, and rightly so. She is his helper and his own flesh, and he should be able to trust in her and confide in her as if she were an extension of himself. Indeed, as we will see below, her husband clearly shares and trusts the household finances with her enough for her to wisely purchase a field for planting a vineyard. While typically one spouse will generally be more naturally inclined to financial bookkeeping, it is a good principle that both the husband and wife should have knowledge and access to the household finances so that both can practice wise stewardship of their resources.

Such a wife ensures that he will have no lack of gain. The word for gain can also mean spoil or plunder, which probably implies that finding a wife like this is more valuable than even the greatest of military victories. Matthew Henry writes that the husband “thinks himself so happy in her that he envies not those who have most of the wealth in this world; he needs it not, he has enough, having such a wife.” Interestingly, this is how Luther spoke of Katie, saying, “I would not exchange my poverty with her, for all the riches of Croesus [one of the wealthiest cities in the ancient world] without her.” Or again he said,

Next to God’s Word, his best gift is a pious, cheerful, God-fearing, home-keeping wife with whom you can live in peace and tranquility; to whom you can entrust your goods and body and life.

INDUSTRIOUS, GENEROUS, FEARLESS, & WISE // VERSES 13-27

With the overall idea of the excellent presented in verses 10-12, the central bulk of the poem gives us her primary characteristics, which we can largely summarize as being industrious (i.e., diligent and hard-working), generous, courageous, and wise.

Verses 13-18 describe her industriousness.

She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.

These verses are marked by her actions. This is important to note because many equate a woman’s submissiveness to her husband with overall passivity, which is not at all what we find here. Instead, she is what we might call a go-getter. And this activity and even assertiveness is not a lack of submission. Instead, because she has her husband’s confidence, she is an extension of himself. Her desires are not contrary to him, and he does not lord over her. She knows her husband more intimately than anyone else and, by wisdom, she actively implements his leading of their family.

Indeed, notice that her industriousness leads to a wise usage of her time. She takes her duty to provide for her household seriously, so she is awake and at work before the dawn. Consider the words of Henry:

She is none of those who sit up playing at cards, or dancing, till midnight, till morning, and then lie in bed till noon. No; the virtuous woman loves her business better than her ease or her pleasure, is in care to be found in the way of her duty every hour of the day, and has more true satisfaction in having given meat to her household betimes in the morning than those can have in the money they have won, much more in what they have lost, who sat up all night at play. Those that have a family to take care of should not love their bed too well in a morning.

Ryan O’Dowd notes that “the verbs ‘seek’ (v. 13) and ‘perceive’ (or ‘taste’; v. 18) enclose these six verses. Together the sayings depict an expert in the ability both to judge the quality of creational and created goods and to commit to the work of adding those same qualities to the world.”

We see in how she seeks the best fabric for her clothing, how she rightly evaluates the value of her merchandise, and how she judges the worth of field. In verses 14-15, she gives thought to her family’s nutrition, gathering food from afar, which probably implies valuable ingredients for the meals that she prepares. Accordingly, O’Dowd writes that “the woman embodies the opposite of our fast-food culture. For her the quality of the food is more important than convenience.”

Indeed, I think this principle is worth considering. Particularly, in the United States, we tend to treat food as nothing more than fuel for the body, and so calories are calories, regardless of the form they come in. However, research continues to show that not all foods are equal and that many ingredients that are used particularly in processed foods and restaurants are outright toxic, ingredients that are generally avoided in homecooked meals. In fact, I would say that there is much more than a simple correlation between America’s health and obesity crisis and the decline of cooking at home; there is causation. Indeed, simply cooking your own food is the simplest way to improve one’s health. Of course, cooking each meal is much harder than picking up McDonald’s, but the excellent wife is diligent to give the best to her family. I am sure that nearly every wife would gladly give her life for her husband and children, but it is perhaps more practical to begin with cooking for them.

Of course, one of the reasons that we eat fast and processed foods is because the last century has seen the majority of wives no longer being full-time homemakers, so we might as well address that particular elephant in the room. Notice that in these verses, the wife is by no means bound to her home. She goes to the market. She is evidently evaluating potential fields to buy. But clearly her home is her priority, and whatever she does outside the home is the benefit of her home. We find this in the New Testament as well since Paul specifically commands younger wives to work at home and to manage their homes. Biblically, homemaking is not optional for wives; it is her God-given duty and domain. Of course, as we see here, her industriousness will likely lead to her bringing more profit into the home, but that is not to come at the expense of her homemaking but in addition to it.

Indeed, it is in the home that a woman’s wise judgment and discernment will be most needed. One of the most draining elements of parenting comes whenever a dispute or quarrel breaks out between children, which typically happens multiple times a day. Yet as tiring as these moments are, they are also building the foundational sense of justice within our children, for better or worse. As a mother, how you discern and decide their conflicts will shape their own discernments and decisions for the rest of their lives. Again, it seems obvious to me that the overall moral decline in our society is correlated with children no longer spending each day under the influence of their mother but being handed over to other adults and largely left to work things out between their peers.

In addition to her industriousness, she is generous.

She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.

Verses 19-20 describe “the skill and strength of the woman’s hands… ‘Arms’ in verse 17 leads to her ‘hands’ and ‘palms.’ All three words represent diligence, skill, and strength,” which she gives for the benefit of those in need. Henry writes:

She is as intent upon giving as she is upon getting; she often serves the poor with her own hand, and she does if freely, cheerfully, and very liberally, with an out-stretched hand. Nor does she relieve her poor neighbours only, and those that are nigh at hand, but she reaches forth her hands to the needy that are at a distance, seeking opportunities to do good and to communicate, which is as good housewifery as any thing she does.

She is also courageous.

She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.

In verses 21-25, we find that she is not afraid of winter, for she has prepared her family for staying warm. She clothes herself in fine linen and purple, which was royal attire, but her most important “clothing” are strength and dignity. Her husband is the kingly man who sits in the gates among the elders, and she is fittingly his queenly wife. She is able to laugh at the time to come because she will meet tomorrow’s trials and hardships with strong, joyful diligence.

Of course, as books like Job and Ecclesiastes teach, diligence is not enough to fend off all hardships, but diligent preparation is far better than slothful anxiety. Indeed, as Christians, we ought to keep Jesus’ words always in our mind: “but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:33-34). Jesus is not telling us to stop planning for the future, but only that we should not be anxious over it. And that is precisely how the excellent wife lives. She prudently plans for the future, but she is not anxious about what she cannot control.

She is also marked by her wisdom, which we see particularly in verse 26: She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Wisdom, we should note, is the skill of living according to God’s good design for the world, while folly (or foolishness) is acting against that design. We can think of wisdom as swimming with a river’s current, and folly as swimming against the current. But while non-believers can speak or act wisely at times, they cannot be wise, as Scripture defines it, for they do not know the Creator.

I mention all of this because the excellent woman’s mouth could not be filled with wisdom if verse 30 were not also true of her: Charm is deceitful, and beauty if vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom (9:10), and we learn to fear the LORD through His holy Word. Thus, the strong wife’s mouth is filled with wisdom because she fears God and listens (and obeys) His Word. Her words are filled with and molded by the Scriptures, upon which she no doubt meditates day and night. Let mothers particularly consider this well, for one of the greatest gifts that you can give to your children is to be constantly meditating upon the Word.

Verse 27 is a kind of summary before the poem’s concluding praise: She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. If we don’t remember anything else about her actions, we should keep this verse in our minds. The first half again establishes the household as her highest priority and her domain of authority. Interestingly, the LXX says that the manner of operation in her household is meticulous (literally, watertight). Or, as we might say, she runs as tight ship at home. Again, this fits with Paul calling young women to manage their households (1 Timothy 5:15), “which refers unmistakably to the ruler of the household (Matthew 13:27, 52) and implies a good deal of authority” (Towner, 356).

In the Hebrew, she looks well means that she intentionally and deeply considers the ways of her household. She gives deep and concentrated thought to managing her home, so that it functions in the wisdom of the LORD. In so doing, she does not eat the bread of idleness. We can be certain that this woman rested, after all she wasn’t allowed to cook or clean on the Sabbath. But she was not idle. Her time is far too valuable to waste on things that do not profit her. Few would debate that our phones are the greatest sources of idleness today, and for social media holds a particular temptation of time for women since it has now become the digital village where much of our connection with one another happens. But we should remember that life in a community village was not without sin, for Paul warned young widows against learning “to be idlers, going about house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not” (1 Timothy 5:13). Smartphones now make that possible without needing to go about house to house. So, if we were to give this verse a 21st Century reworking, we might say: “She looks well to the ways of her own household and isn’t glued to her phone and in the business of others.”

BLESSED AND PRAISED // VERSES 28-31

The poem concludes with a series of praises for this excellent wife, which begins with her own household: Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently [chayil], but you surpass them all.” Indeed, just as her husband has a seat with the elders in the city gates, her works praise her in the gates, which is to say that the whole town recognizes her worth. O’Donnell notes:

In the ancient world, it was “at the gate”–the main opening the city wall–that “business was transacted, affairs were settled, and the news of the community circulated.” Men in most ancient societies traveled to the city gates to perform their livelihood. The man in this poem, however, is so respected by his peers that “he sits among the elders of the land” (31:23). He sits on the city council. He sits in a position of rule and judgment over the affairs of the city. In case we miss it, the point is captured well in the familiar but so often true cliche: behind every great man is a great woman. This man’s sitting is very much related to his wife’s serving. (55)

Indeed, verse 30 is crucial in any man’s search for such a wife: Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised. The point, of course, is not to say that charm and beauty are bad things. They are wonderful. In fact, they are so wonderful that they are what most men primarily look for in a woman. Charm, however, can easily be deceiving. Beauty is vain in the sense that it is fleeting. The Hebrew word is hevel, which is used throughout Ecclesiastes, and we might think of passing nature of our visible breath on a cold morning as an example. While physical beauty is a joy (just look at Song of Songs), it is a passing thing. More than charm and beauty, a woman who fears Yahweh is to be praised. Matthew Poole notes that this may be left for the end of the poem either as the crown of her virtue or as the key for properly understanding all the previous virtues, and I would say that it is both. It is the crown of the excellent and queenly woman, for it reveals that she ultimately does her work according to the will and pleasure of the LORD God. It is also the key to understanding all of her other virtues (that is, her industriousness, generosity, courageousness, and wisdom), for everything she does is in submission to the Creator’s wise design.

Because the poem explicitly ends with a call to praise such a woman, let us consider the words of Proverbs 27:21: “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and a man is tested by his praise.” Many translations take the interpretation that a man is tested by the praise that he receives, which is certainly true, but the ESV is right to leave the phrasing open for other interpretations, for many commentators have viewed it as also saying that a man is tested by what he praises, which is also certainly true. Indeed, Lewis rightly says that “praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.” Or perhaps we can say it like this: what you praise is one of the greatest indications of what kind of person you are.  

With this in mind, since Scripture clearly presents this excellent woman as being worthy of our praise, this whole poem becomes a litmus test for how biblical our view of womanhood and femininity is. Would we join her husband and children in praise of this woman? Would we encourage her in her life of diligent and perpetual and non-grumbling sacrifice for her household? Or would we view it as a shame that all of her strength, gifts, and talents are being spent primarily upon her husband and her children? Would we be quick to warn her against being too consumed with her own household and encourage her to get out more? Would we encourage her to cling to Christ and His Word for strength to run the marathon that is motherhood, or would we tell her that she just needs to get away and have some “me time” or have some adult conversations with other young women, which have a tendency to turn to gossip and busy bodying?

This kind of woman will be given the fruit of her hands and her works will praise her, even if no one else does. But, again, our praise (or lack thereof) for such biblical excellence is a mirror that reveals how biblical our minds really are. Are the values that we praise worldly? Then we will certainly praise the woman who is powerful, wealthy, and successful in the corporate, political, social, or academic spheres. That is what the world values. Remember that the Gentiles seek to lord over one another. Indeed, that is why almost all the women that are celebrated in film and television are women that act like men.

But God’s Word says something very different. It says a woman is not praiseworthy simply for holding a powerful position, making lots of money, or being extraordinarily famous. She is to be praised because she is a servant, a servant of all—her husband, her children, her city, and the poor. She is praised because she has sacrificed and submitted self and self-glory. That is why everyone stands up and applauds her at the end of this poem. (57)

O’Donnell is right. Self-denial, sacrifice, and submission are the values of God’s kingdom, and we know that because our Lord calls us all to this work, for consider His words: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself [self-denial] and take up his cross [sacrifice] and follow me [submission]” (Mark 8:34). You see, we ought to praise the excellent wife because through her we see a glimpse of our Lord. As she serves and gives the best of herself to those around her each and every day, her godly conduct images Christ, who did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Therefore, as we come the Table before us, let us set our gaze upon Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Although it is both necessary and honorable for a wife to provide her household with their daily bread, here we remember that Christ has given us far more, for He has given us Himself as the bread of life and the living water. And while the excellent woman sees that her household is clean and clothed in fine linen, our Lord cleanses us of the sinful stains upon our very hearts and clothes us in His own righteousness so that we have no shame in standing before His Father on the day of judgment. The virtuous wife is constantly giving herself to meet the needs of others, but Christ gave Himself by taking on our nature and submitting Himself to the will of the Father through taking the judgment of our sins upon Himself. Again, we praise the excellent woman because of how she resembles Jesus, so while we rightly praise her, we join her in giving the fullness and totality of our praise to Christ our King and Savior.