The Wife of Noble Character

Proverbs 30-31

            When reading about the wife of noble character, it is important to imagine life before the Industrial Revolution. In a pre-industrial world, the home was the center of life, the household the basic economic driver. In this context, the wife of noble character is not some little homemaker; she doesn’t engage in ‘crafts.’ No, she is an economic engine: she is diligent, rising early, working industriously. She buys land, expands opportunities, engages in trade. She turns the fruit of the earth (traditionally the purview of a man) into goods for sale and for the support of the family.

            How do we translate this into an industrial age? Many in our day long nostalgically for a day when wives stayed at home and raised the children. But in some ways, the picture of the wife of noble character is very modern. She has a career; she creates wealth for the household. Now, of course, in a pre-industrial age, that work happened at home; but so did the work of the father, who taught especially his sons to engage in the family’s work. In an agrarian age, fathers and mothers raised children. So, yeah, we haven’t figured out all the questions that industrialization has raised, especially around work and childrearing, but the wife of noble character suggests that our options aren’t quite as limited as we sometimes think.