Proverbs 31:10

10. Who can find a virtuous woman This translation is unhappy.

First, the word “virtuous,” whatever may have been its original sense, now lost, according to its common modern use, as applied to woman, does not convey the idea of the original: for אשׁת חיל , ( esheth hhayil,) does not mean a chaste woman. Chaste the woman is who here sits for her picture; but this is a matter of course, and is quietly assumed, not only here, but throughout the whole piece. There is a beauty in this fact. It would have been a poor compliment to a noble-minded. God-fearing Hebrew lady, as it is to a Christian, to say that she was a chaste woman. She is in this respect not only above reproach and above suspicion, but her character forbids the matter to be raised as a subject of thought. It is not mentioned or alluded to. We have scarcely any English word that conveys the exact and full force of the original hhayil. The versions generally render it by strength, or some equivalent that is, a strong wife. The Septuagint has ανδρειαν manly, brave, courageous; the Vulgate, followed by the Douay, valiant, which is not a bad rendering. Stuart translates, “a woman of energy,”

which comes as near the idea as any other one word. The original involves the notion of strength, force, energy, ability, capability, bravery, valour, (with such modification as female character would imply,) every element fitting her for her station, and those in a high degree. It embraces the physical, intellectual, and moral: a woman capable of doing, being, and enduring all that pertains to a wife, and that in an heroic manner: not the wife of a person in lowly station, but in the higher walks of society the wife of a magistrate or prince.

Secondly, the translation is rather too literal to convey what we conceive to be the meaning and force of the original sentence. The interrogative form in our language implies a negation: “Who can find?” equivalent to, no one can find. This would be horrible, if we were to take virtuous, here, in our modern sense, as applied to a woman. The writer evidently intended no such disparagement of woman in general; not even if we tone down the implied answer into, such a one can scarcely be found. The true link will appear by a very slight change, abundantly warranted by the Hebrew idiom Who will find (me) a suitable wife? which again is equal to, “O that I might find,” etc. It is the expression of an ardent desire to find a wife of superior excellences, rather than a reflection on the sex and a note of despair. The Hebrew scholar need scarcely be reminded of the frequent use of the particle מי , ( mi,) as expressing a wish or desire. (See Gesenius under the word.) The following is a free translation according to the sense:

O that I might find a brave wife!

For her value is far beyond that of pearls!

This makes a proper introduction to the particulars that follow. The common version does not.