Lessons #35 and 36
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Instructions to various groups of believers (Titus 2:1-6)
1You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. 2 Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.
3 Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. 6 Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled.
It is our assertion that the encouragement older women should give to younger women is concerned with domestic life. Therefore, we ended our last study by considering a virtue older women should encourage younger women to have, which is, to be husband lovers or those who habitually have affection for their husbands. We implied that such an instruction indicates that loving a husband or having affection for him is not automatic or a given, otherwise there would be no need for the instruction. The truth is that older women are to encourage or advise younger women to learn to be affectionate towards their husbands through correct handling of their thoughts and proper actions that reflect their love. But there is another member of the younger women’s family that they should be encouraged or advised to have proper affection; their children. It is with this we begin our study today.
The advice or encouragement of older women for younger women is to love their children as given in the verbal phrase of the NIV of Titus 2:4 to love their husbands and children. Literally, the Greek reads women to be husband lovers, child lovers. The literal expression “child lovers” is translated from a Greek adjective (philoteknos) that appears only here in the Greek NT; it pertains to having affection for one’s own offspring, hence means “loving one’s own children, one who loves children.” It is interesting that the Holy Spirit would through Apostle Paul require older women to encourage or urge younger women to love their children. This is because by maternal instinct, every woman has affection for the child unless there is problem with the mind. By this we mean unless the woman’s mind has been affected in such a way that she does not think rationally. It this kind of thing that would cause a woman to have a child and dump him/her in a trash can or to turn around and kill the child. Every woman who is sound of mind has affection for her child. This being the case, it is interesting that the Holy Spirit will charge the older women to teach or urge younger women to love their children. The implication is that there is more to what it is that older women are to urge younger women to do than merely to have affection for their children.
What is it that the Holy Spirit through the apostle wants older women to teach or encourage the younger women with respect to loving their children? I submit to you that the encouragement or the teaching of the older women to younger women is primarily to train their children properly. A woman may confuse her natural affection with what it means to love a child and so it is necessary to teach a younger woman that natural affection may result in not training a child properly and the result will be that of not loving a child. There are two ways to prove the point that it is the training of children properly that is the primary concern of the love in view and not merely showing affection to children. The first way is how the Greek word that means “one who loves children” is used outside the NT. It is used outside the NT in a reproachful way for an indulgent parent. This implies that a parent who is indulgent towards a child is not to be recognized as loving the child. The second way is that the Scripture is clear that failure to discipline a child is an indication of lack of love, as stated in Proverbs 13:24:
He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
This passage in Proverbs is clear that a parent that fails to correct and punish a child when he/she goes astray is one that does not love the child. Hence, loving a child certainly involves inflicting a kind of pain to that child when he/she does something wrong to convey to the child not only that such a conduct is not acceptable but also to convey that there is consequence for wrong doing.
Accepting that the teaching older women are to be involved with respect to younger women as it pertains to their children concerns primarily their training them, then there are at least three things the older women should teach the younger women. They should teach them to be careful not to allow their natural affection for a child to cloud their judgment with respect to correcting their children in a painful way whenever they do something wrong. This is because of the effect of the fall on humankind. The effect of sin due to the fall is evident in everything that pertains to our nature. The fall means that even our affection towards others is tainted with sin. This being the case, the older women should encourage the younger women to be careful that they do not allow their affection for their children to affect them in such a way that they become indulgent towards their children. It is not difficult for a woman because of her maternal affection to become tolerant or lenient to a child who has done something wrong. Therefore, the older women should emphasize to the younger women that it is not a sign of love to be permissive or lenient to a child who behaves badly. Older women should themselves be careful that they practice what they teach. This is because it is not uncommon to find even older women become involved with encouragement of bad behavior in children when they say that a child is being cute when in fact that child is misbehaving or for the bad behavior of a child to be excused by saying such thing as the child is being a child meaning that the child who is acting foolishly is encouraged to do so. To say that a child who acts badly is being a child is to ignore the truth that every child is foolish in his/her behavior so that such foolishness must be driven out through proper discipline, as stated in Proverbs 22:15:
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
Folly that is found in every child is that of lack of knowledge of truth that leads to acting in a way that is contrary to God’s word. A child does not know what God requires and so is prone to do whatever that child feels like doing or saying without any kind of thought. Hence, it is important for parents to inflict pain on children when they act thoughtlessly, to convey to them that they should not act in a specific way they acted. Of course, the rod of disciple is concerned with inflicting pain but we should also recognize that discipline requires proper instruction. In other words, a younger woman should carefully instruct a child regarding what is acceptable and what is not. Any time a mother applies painful discipline to a child, it is necessary to explain the reason for such to the child so that the child would learn to associate actions to their consequences. The point is that older women should encourage younger women to learn not to tolerate bad behaviors on the part of their children or be lenient to them by withholding punishments that bring pain on them. Furthermore, the younger women should be relentless in instructing their children with respect to proper conduct or behavior. In effect, the first thing older women should teach younger women with respect to loving their children is to know how to balance instruction with punishment to help a child to be well adjusted human being in that such a child knows what is wrong as well as knows that bad behaviors have consequences that are painful to the one who so misbehaves.
A second thing that older women should teach or advise the younger women with respect to loving their children that involves discipline is that they should never interfere with a father’s disciplining of a child. Because of their birth pangs, mothers have deeper sympathy than fathers and so very rarely are they able to discipline their children as they should. But that is not all. They will quite often feel that their husbands are harsh on their children and so may be prone to interfere with a father’s discipline. Older women should encourage the younger women not to do so, especially before the children. They should teach the younger women to learn how to convey any perceived excessive discipline to their husbands in such a way not to undermine their authority before the children. This is a practical matter in the sense that parents should never confuse children by giving conflicting instructions or signals to them. This instruction is important because many mothers have unwittingly contributed to the misery of the children later in life because by not supporting their husbands they caused the children to disrespect their fathers so that they suffer the judgment pronounced in the Scripture, for example, in Proverbs 20:20
If a man curses his father or mother, his lamp will be snuffed out in pitch darkness.
The punishment of this passage is evident in the fact that some adults on the verge of success in their various fields suddenly find themselves not actually succeeding. For example, such a person may be slated for promotion but that falls through the last minute. Or a person may seem to be prospering but suddenly loses everything because as a child the person did not respect parental authority. This aside, the point is that part of older women’s instruction to the younger women is that they should be careful not to interfere with a father’s discipline of a child regardless of how they may feel.
A third thing that older women should teach or advise the younger women with respect to loving their children is they should learn to be devoted to their children. This may seem strange but it is not because in the ancient world, children were given little importance. Furthermore, even now some mothers are not really devoted to their children as they should. How can that be you may ask? Well, let me show how that happens. Lack of devotion to children is evident in the practice of some parents pawning off their children to their parents to enjoy themselves. It may surprise you that we indicated this since many grandmothers enjoy having their grandchildren around them. What can be wrong with that you may ask? Nothing per say. It all depends on the reason children are at their grandparents’ house. If they are there at the request of the grandparents or so that a mother goes to work or to take care of some pressing needs then there is nothing wrong with that and that does not mean that a mother has pawned off her child. However, if the grandchildren are in the grandparents’ house because their parents want to enjoy themselves and so consider it necessary to have their children elsewhere then that means that the mother is not devoted to the children and therefore does not love the children at the instant that happens. You see, once married couples have children then whatever else they did when they were without children should be modified to ensure that they are devoted to their children and so should not do things they consider pleasure that excludes their children. Young married couples should recognize that once they have children whatever pleasure they use to pursue should be curtailed to devote their time to their children. To send off children to their grandparents in order to enjoy oneself is tantamount to saying that children are inconveniencing their parents, which definitely is not a demonstration of love. Furthermore, parents should recognize that the children did not ask to be borne by them. Therefore, once parents make decision to have children, loving them involves being devoted to them and their needs; failure to do this is tantamount to a mother not loving their children as she should. Another way a mother shows she is not devoted to a child in the sense of loving the child is through failure to teach the child truth derived from the word of God. It is the primary responsibility of a mother to teach her children biblical principles as they spend more time with them than perhaps the husband. The Scripture is clear that parents and grandparents should teach truth to their children, as stated in Deuteronomy 4:9:
Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.
The instruction to be given to children is the primary responsibility of parents but that does not exclude grandparents. Nonetheless, it is the primary responsibility of parents, especially mothers, to teach their children truth at the early stages of their life when they are being raised by them. Of course, fathers are not excluded but the fact is that mothers spend more time with their children at their early years of life than, sa,y a father. If a mother fails to teach biblical principles to her children then she demonstrates she does not love them, regardless of what she may claim. It is to ensure that this takes place that older women should exhort younger women to learn to be devoted to their children in not only taking care of them with their physical needs but their spiritual needs. By way a person cannot teach what the individual does not know. So, I contend that to be a good mother requires being devoted to God’s word in the sense of learning and applying it. Anyway, these three instructions we have considered are necessary in helping younger women in having the proper love for their children. This brings us to five virtues the older women are to instill on the younger women that still involve domestic life.
A first virtue essential in domestic life that older women are to instill on younger women is described in Titus 2:5 in the NIV as self-control. This is same virtue that is expected of older men, implying that whatever virtue that is mentioned with any of the groups Titus was to instruct is not limited to that group but to believers in general. Nonetheless, the virtue described as “self-control”, as we have previously, considered, is translated from a Greek word (sōphrōn) that pertains to being in control of oneself and so means “prudent, thoughtful, self-controlled.” The word is used in Hellenistic literature to describe an individual who avoids extremes and who carefully considers his action, hence the word may mean “sensible, moderate.” Anyhow, older women are to instill on the younger women the necessity of moderation in all they do. This requires that younger women should not be quick to act or do anything without careful consideration of the impact of what they are about to do on themselves and others, especially their husbands and children. Therefore, it is as the younger woman is very thoughtful regarding her actions that she will exercise self-control. Exercising of self-control requires an awareness that one’s action has consequences. If a younger woman understands that what she does will have either negative or positive effect on her and on her husband and children in addition to others that she would think carefully before acting. It is important that a younger woman should have the virtue of moderation or self-control because of the demand on her. She is a mother and a wife. The responsibilities of both could be overwhelming if she is not careful in considering the consequences of her action on those in her family. Thus, it is important she knows how to weigh carefully the consequences of the action that she undertakes. A wife is the manager of her home and a good manager must be a level-headed person who does not become emotional and act without facts. This being the case, a younger woman should be level-headed in all she does at home and in her interaction with others. We are saying that the virtue of being always self-controlled is important for a woman to be able to handle her responsibilities as a mother and a wife in such a manner that will be honoring to the Lord.
A second virtue essential in domestic life that older women are to instill on younger women is purity in life. This is described in the NIV as pure in Titus 2:5. The word “pure” is translated from a Greek word (hagnos) that originally in classical Greek means “what awakens awe” but in the NT, it is used with several meanings. It is used with the meaning “innocent” in 2 Corinthians 7:11:
See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.
It is used with the meaning “chaste” in the sense of abstaining from extramarital sexual intercourse or all sexual intercourse in 2 Corinthians 11:2:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
The phrase pure virgin refers to a lady that has never had any sexual relationship with any man and so “pure” has the sense of “chastity.” Our Greek word may also mean “moral purity”, as the word is used in 1 Timothy 5:22:
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
In our passage of Titus 2:5, the word is used in terms of moral purity with perhaps emphasis on sexual purity of younger women. In effect, younger women are to be morally pure in the sense of being free of sin but with specific attention given to the issue of being sexually faithful to their husbands.
Every married woman certainly knows that she is expected to be sexually faithful to the husband and so what is it that older women should instill on the younger women to ensure they maintain sexual purity in their marriage relationships? There are at least two things they should teach, one positive and the other negative. Positively, the older women should encourage younger women regarding the necessity of fulfilling their marital duty with respect to sex. In other words, older women should encourage younger women that it is important for them to maintain a healthy sexual relationship with their husbands. This exhortation should not necessarily be based on the older woman’s experience as it is to be based on the Scripture. The Scripture is clear that a wife should not withhold sex from the husband and vice versa, as stated in 1 Corinthians 7:5:
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
This passage is clear that one of the ways to avoid marital infidelity is for each spouse to fulfill the other sexually. In other words, many of the sexual infidelity in marriage is often because spouses refuse to meet their sexual obligation to each other. Because it is necessary to have sexual relationship in a marriage situation, Satan uses that desire to tempt spouses to go astray. Therefore, to ensure that one does not succumb to temptation in this area, it is important that spouses should meet their sexual obligation to one another. The implication is that positively, older women should advise or exhort the younger women on the importance of maintaining a healthy sexual relationship with their husbands. Negatively, older women should exhort younger women to be careful in receiving attention from men that are not their husbands. Sexual infidelity on the part of a woman often starts with her receiving attention that she craves for from another man. Younger women have the tendency rightly or wrongly to feel that they are not getting adequate attention from their husbands. Consequently, when they meet men who give them attention they unwittingly become drawn to them. What we are saying is that sexual infidelity often begins with innocent conversation and attention from a man to a woman who is unhappy in her marriage. Such conversation will then proceed to something sexual and eventually into sexual intercourse. This being the case, the older women should encourage younger women to ensure they avoid any kind of interaction with men who are not their spouses that will lead to a sexual conversation which may be dangerous. We are saying that older women should caution younger women to be prudent and avoid situations that will trap them into sexual relationships with those not their husbands. In any event, the second virtue that older women should instill on younger women concerns moral purity, especially that of sexual purity in marriage.
A third virtue essential in domestic life that older women are to instill on younger women is that of being always busy in a profitable manner. This virtue is described in the NIV of Titus 2:5 with the verbal phrase to be busy at home. The expression “busy at home” is translated from a rare Greek word (oikourgos) that appears only here in the Greek NT; it pertains to carrying out household responsibilities and so means “busy at home, carrying out household duties, homemaker.” For us, the modern people, it is probably better to use the meaning “homemaker” to translate the Greek word because of being busy at home may be taken to mean that the apostle is primalry concerned with only women who stay home with their children. The virtue that older women should be encouraging the younger women to have is that of always being busy or occupied so that one avoids laziness. It is important for younger women to learn how to be busy at their homes or to be good homemakers since idleness has the tendency of leading a woman to being a busy body that noses around to see what gossip she may spread. The effect of laziness or idleness is indicated in 1 Timothy 5:13:
Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.
Younger women who are Christians are to ensure that they find themselves occupied with things at home and not be like women with questionable character that find it difficult to be at home but always on the go as descriptive of the woman with undesirable moral character described in Proverbs 7:11–12:
11 (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; 12now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.)
A woman who is always on the go when there is so much to do in her house is one that is restless. She may not be a sexually immoral person but she displays restlessness in the soul. There is usually so much for a woman to do at home to be considered a homemaker.
Older women are to encourage younger women to be good homemakers since it is not that easy to be a homemaker. Of course, there are those who mistake the concept of what is described as “stay at home mothers” to mean that do very little at home. It is not uncommon to find with the younger generation that those mothers who stay at home to take care of their children are often very lazy in that their houses are never clean and they rarely have food for their husbands when they come back from work because they claim children keep them busy. The reality is that a closer examination of such women reveals that they are characterized by laziness in that they spend too much time on TV or on social media so that they have little time to do their chores that would include keeping their houses clean and cooking food for their husband who presumably work outside of the home. The truth is that there is laziness among the younger generation than was the case with their grandparents. I recall several years ago when a lady professor in the same university I was expressed to me that she found it difficult to do as much as her mother did with many children and without washers for dishes and clothes. In effect, she admitted that her mother maintained a better household than she despite the amenities she has and the fact that she had only two children. This admission is one that indicates that many younger women do not know how to be good homemakers. This being the case, older women should urge or teach younger women to be good homemakers.
What should the older women to teach younger women so they would become good homemakers? It is primarily to teach them to imitate the activities of the woman considered as the model wife in the Scripture, that is, the capable wife described in the book of Proverbs that we will get to shortly. Meanwhile, we should state that there are two activities that should be conveyed to younger women by older women, who themselves presumably fit the description of the capable wife, which are providing for the needs of the household with respect to clothing and food and being a good manager of the household finances. We will elaborate on these two activities by considering the activities of the capable wife described in Proverbs 31:13-22.
Activities of the capable wife (Proverbs 31: 13-22, 24)
13She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. 14She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. 16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard. 17She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks. 18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night. 19In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. 20She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy. 21When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet. 22She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple. 24She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
But before we consider this passage there are two things we need to do. The first is to establish that this passage is concerned with the capable wife. This is because the wife whose activities are described here is described as the wife with noble character in the NIV, as we read in Proverbs 31:10
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Our English versions use different adjectives to describe the wife in question. For example, the ESV or the NASB use the word “excellent”, the NCV or the CEV use “good” while many other English versions such as the TEV, the NJB, the NJV (New Jewish Version) among others use the adjective “capable.” All these translations are permissible. This is because the expression “noble character” of the NIV is translated from a Hebrew word (ḥǎyil) that its basic meaning is “strength” giving rise to such meaning as “army, wealth.” It is used with a range of meanings in the Hebrew Scripture. In some contexts, the word means “special ability, capability.” It is used in the sense of special ability in Pharaoh’s request to Joseph regarding his brothers that came to settle in Egypt, as in Genesis 47:6:
and the land of Egypt is before you; settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen. And if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.”
The meaning of “capability” is reflected in the qualifications of the men that Moses’ father in law advised should be his helpers in Exodus 18:21:
But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
The word may mean “noble character, strong character, worthy person”, as it is used in the NIV to describe Ruth in Ruth 3:11:
And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.
The NJV used the adjective “fine” to describe Ruth while the CEB used the word “worth.” The word may in some context mean “efficient.” This seems to be the sense of the Hebrew word in describing the wife that is the focus of our study, as given in Proverbs 31:29:
“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
The verbal phrase do noble things may be translated do efficiently as suggested in the standard Hebrew English lexicon of Brown, Driver, and Briggs. Thus, with the various meanings we have mentioned, one gets the idea that our Hebrew word in some contexts signifies capability, efficiency, and/or quality of character. The implication is that the wife whose activities are described in Proverbs 31:13-22 may be described by her quality and capability. However, the focus of the wife in view is her activities so that it is her capability or competency or efficiency that was primary in our passage that no doubt speaks to her character. It is probably to capture both senses that the translators of the NLT (New Living Translation) described the wife using the expression “virtuous and capable.” This notwithstanding, considering that the passage of Proverbs 31:10-31 is predominantly concerned with the activities of the ideal wife, it is probably better to use the word “capable” to describe her with the understanding that her capability reflects her good character.
The second thing we need to do before we consider our passage is to make five comments regarding the passage we are about to study. A first comment is that the passage should be understood under the context that it is concerned with the description of a wife who enjoys the total confidence of the husband as his household manager, as indicated in the declaration of Proverbs 31:11:
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
The first sentence Her husband has full confidence in her indicates the husband has full confidence in his wife as a capable or competent manager of his household and the second part of the verse lacks nothing of value gives the result of the wife’s competency, which is that he is not short of anything. We make this comment because a careless reading of the activities of the wife may give the impression that the husband does nothing to meet the needs of his household. No! This is a case where the husband is hard working, but the wife assists him by administering what he works hard to bring to the household in such a way that she stretches the household income by her good managerial skills. A second comment is that for our purposes in this study, we will not deal with verse 20 of Proverbs 31since it is concerned primarily with the capable wife’s character, but our focus is on her activities. A third comment is that the passage we are about to consider provides details that indicate the capable wife is always busy and a competent manager of her household. We base our comment on the fact that the author of the passage we are to consider, often classified as a poem, despite all he has said about the capable wife seemed to have summarized her activities with two statements that speak to her busy life as a manager, as we read in Proverbs 31:27:
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
The first sentence She watches over the affairs of her household conveys that the capable wife is a good manager in that she watches closely what goes on in her household ensuring that she takes good care of her family needs. The second part of the verse does not eat the bread of idleness described her as always busy although that is given in a negative manner. This is because the verbal phrase eat the bread of idleness means to be habitually idle or lazy. But she is said not to eat the bread of idleness which is to say that she is not habitually idle or lazy, indicating she is always busy. A fourth comment is that the activities of the capable woman are those expected of a believing wife since they are doable and not merely ideal in the sense that no woman could attain them. A fifth comment is that we will not necessarily follow the order of the sentences given in the passage we are about to consider in our exposition of it but the verse we consider is to be determined by the specific activity that is our focus. With these comments, we turn our attention to the activities of the capable woman given in Proverbs 31:13-22.
A first activity of the capable wife that keeps her busy is providing for the needs of her household that are described as consisting of two areas. The first area concerns food for the family. It is this that is described in Proverbs 31:14-15:
14She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. 15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
There are two things that the capable wife does with respect to meeting the need of her household regarding their food. She gathers all the food for her family wherever she can find it at the best price. It is this action that is described in the simile She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. The word “merchant” is translated from a Hebrew word (sōḥēr) that means “to go about, to and fro”, that is, “to go about one’s affairs, carry on one’s business”, as it is used in Joseph’s statement to his brothers in Genesis 42:34:
But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land.’”
The sentence you can trade in the land is more literally you may move about freely in the land. When our word is used as a participle, as it is used in this passage, the meaning is “merchant, trader” as it is used to describe those who made purchases on behalf of King Solomon in 1 Kings 10:28:
Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue (i.e. the name of Cilicia in the OT times).
It is in the sense of merchant who negotiates the best possible price for the various items purchased that the word is used in our context. Thus, to compare the capable wife to a merchant ship is to say that she not only finds the best food wherever she can at the best possible price, but she adds varieties to her family food or other items by bartering with other local people. There is the sense that in the ancient agricultural economy that the capable wife will use some good produced in her household including some produce from the family farm to barter for other things the family needs that they do not have. The implication, of course, is that she is not the sole producer of goods in her household as surface reading of the passage may imply. She is competent manager, so she knows how to leverage what she has for what she needs. She would take some of the produce the husband and other hired helpers harvested and then barter for the other kinds of food items that the family does not have to ensure variety in their deity or food. In today’s economy, the wife in view would shop wisely to find best combination of food that the family needs at the best price. In effect, this woman would be cautious not to spend money because the family has it. No! She will wisely shop around to get the best produce for her money which will be either from her and the husband where she works outside of the home or from her husband if she does not work outside of her home. The point is that the capable wife in our day strives to find food for the family at the best price she could and does all she could to ensure not only to have variety in their diet but does so economically. Thus, older women should encourage the younger women to ensure they look for the best ways to ensure that they get the adequate nutrition for their family at the best possible price. In addition, they should encourage them to do everything they could to assist their husbands in ensuring that the family has adequate food.
06/09/17