An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 131: How To Be A Good Wife (Proverbs 26-31)

Proverbs 26-31
How To Be A Good Wife.

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.

For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT

For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

Proverbs 26

“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”

This chapter seems to deal mainly with the foolish, with various sayings giving similes for their actions. Most of which, it has to be said, are a little opaque in meaning and I suspect that they have lost something in translation. Aphorisms have a tendency to be quite specific to their country and language of origin – witness Breughel the Elder’s painting of Netherlandish Proverbs, and how strange many of them seem due to distance in time and language. It’s not immediately obvious what, to take an example from that painting, what the meaning of a man with one shoe on and one foot bare is supposed to be, nor if you turn that into the saying “one foot shod, the other bare”. Some of the proverbs here are like that.

And also, V4 “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him” followed immediately by V5 “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit”. Come on, Proverbs! Now you’re just messing with me. If you ever find yourself in a flame war on an internet forum and you want an apt biblical quote, “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth” seems as a good a way to say “don’t’ feed the trolls” as any.

Proverbs 27

“Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?”

Unsurprisingly, more proverbs. The meanings are so varied it’s quite hard to pick out what one should do to be virtuous. Humility is one aspect “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips”, but it would seem other people might be reluctant to sing your praises because “He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him”. I’m not sure why. Is this supposed to mean that nobody likes a show-off? The chapter ends with a few verses denouncing the seeking of riches beyond which you need to live comfortably, in the form of livestock and produce.

Proverbs 28

“A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.”

The bulk of these are concerned with the idea that to be good is better to be rich, also touching on how greed can turn kings into tyrants. To be honest, I’m running out of things to say.

Proverbs 29

“The king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established for ever.”

More proverbs along the lines of “a good man is good, but a bad man is bad”. This chapter seems to touch quite often on the idea of good versus bad rulership, and how a rise in wickedness can lead to anarchy. And does anyone else think that the quoted line is going to be interpreted to mean Jesus?

Proverbs 30

“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”

This chapter’s more fun. It’s described as the words of Agur, son of Jakeh, and it’s laid out very poetically, with rhetorical repetition of lines and line formats. Lists of three or four things that are “too wonderful” for the writer, three or four things that “disquiet” the earth. There is a repeat about “a generation” of people who lead sinful lives (a tirade against the “youth of today”, no doubt). I particularly like the four things that are “little on earth” but possess wisdom – ants, for working hard; rabbits, for building homes in barren places; locusts, for organising themselves without a king and spiders, for skilful work with their “hands”. As with much of Proverbs, women don’t come out of this chapter too well, being cast as troublesome distractions from the acquisition of wisdom.

Proverbs 31

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”

This chapter is given as the words of King Lemuel, as told by his mother. There is some typical Proverbs warning at the start about avoiding strong drink and loose women, but the bulk of this chapter expounds the properties of a “virtuous woman”. Actually, it’s not too bad. Mostly the requirements are industriousness and good business sense. I thought there might be stuff about being quiet and obedient, but nothing on this, save “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness” but this kind of advice has been dished out to men as well. In fact, it’s interesting how much women were obviously involved in not only the business of running a household but of buying and selling cloth that they had made and managing land (“She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard”).

And finally Proverbs is at an end, and it proved to be as much of a task as I feared it would be to plough through. I don’t think I feel any wiser from doing so, merely confused. Leviticus was a similar dry list, but since that book was pitched as laws it was interesting from the point of view of seeing a civilisation attempting to define and control itself. Psalms gave a very personal point of view of worship, but overall was more poetic and less dry than this book. Chapter 30 was a good one, though.