Each Friday evening at our shabbat meal my husband reads Provers 31. He usually reads in the King James Version but the other night he decided to read from a different translation for a change. We chose the Knox translation. We got to verse 29 and I weas arrested: “Her husband is loud in her praise.” He praises her with these words: “Unrivalled art thou among all the women that have enriched their homes.”
I love how this passage encourages all the women who embrace their home life and live virtuously in their homes. This word “virtuously” (KJV) which is also used in verse 10, is the Hebrew word “chayil” and means “to be strong and valiant.” It is usually used in the context of an army and warfare. It is the same word that is used to describe the mighty men of valor.
The “above rubies” woman is not a little weakling. She must be strong and courageous to manage her home and family well. She must be strong to fight against the subtleties of the enemy who brings his temptations into her home and seeks to dim the atmosphere of Heaven in her home. She must be strong in her convictions to stand against the deceptions of this age, to embrace her womanly anointing with her head held high, to live in the truth in a society that lies in the trough of deception, to be knowledgeable of God’s ways, and train her children to be strong in the truth.
But I also love this phrase in the Knox translations of those who “enrich their homes.” What a lovely vision to have ladies. We wake up every morning with thoughts, ideas, and visions of how to enrich our homes today. The word “enrich” means “to improve or enhance the quality or value of something.”
Can you think of how you could improve your relationship with your husband today. It’s such fun to think of another idea of how you can shower your husband with love, isn’t it? What little surprise, love note, or poem will you have waiting for him when he comes home this evening?
Can you think of something special to do that will enhance your home life today? Some new surprise for the children. I’m not talking about monetarily, but some special thing you can do together. Maybe some lovely or different thing you can you do as you all sit around the table for supper tonight. You could even add a lovely tablecloth instead of sitting at a naked table!
Make it your goal to be an enriching wife. An enriching mother. An enriching homemaker.
But there’s more. This Scripture speaks of all the women who enrich their homes, but there’s one who excels them all. Who ascends above them all. Or as the Young’s iteral translations says: “Many are the daughters who have done worthily, Thou hast gone UP ABOVE them all.”
Is this your testimony.
Loads of love from Nancy Campbell
Painting: Laurits Regner Tuxen (9 December 1853 – 21 November 1927), a Danish painter.