It’s safe to say that a lot of woman do not like the Proverbs 31 woman.   She seems like the perfect woman.  She is good to her husband, she gets up at dark to care for her family, she works the fields, has a business, makes her family clothing…  It all seems impossible.

We don’t read of exhaustion that leads to fights, dirty clothes and messy houses, dinners that are too often not home-cooked, and a job that is tiring.  Is that in Prov 31?  No.

But the truth is many a woman is a Prov 31 woman.  She actually does love her husband and her kids, working a job to help care for the family needs, and rising early to make sure they are dressed and ready for school.  This woman is not a woman of perfection but a woman that is not idle (v. 27).    She is a woman of character and fears the Lord (v. 30).

“Give her the reward of her labor” is the point of this teaching.  Lemuel’s mother is giving him instruction.  And while I’m tempted to think that this is directive specifically to Lemuel that he needs to start sharing the financial reward with his wife, the context doesn’t let me go there.  Not that it isn’t true, but the context is honor.

Sayings and proverbs were not the rhyming of sounds like we have in modern poetry, but the rhyming of thought.  Two lines creating the same picture for a single truth.  And when we apply that here, what we see is a teaching to Lemuel–Honor your wife.  She works hard.