Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 31:14
She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
14. She is like the merchant’s ships ] The principles of profitable exchange which regulate foreign trade are exemplified in the narrower sphere of her wise domestic economy. The reference to merchant-ships is interesting as pointing to an age when trade with foreign countries was common.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The comparison points to the enlarged commerce of the Israelites consequent on their contact with the Phoenicians under David and Solomon; compare Pro 31:24.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 14. She is like the merchants’ ships]
3. She acts like merchants. If she buy any thing for her household, she sells sufficient of her own manufactures to pay for it; if she imports, she exports: and she sends articles of her own manufacturing or produce to distant countries; she traffics with the neighbouring tribes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By the sale of her homespun commodities she purchaseth the choicest goods which come from far countries.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
She is like the merchant ships,…. Not like a single one, but like a navy of them, that cross the seas, go to foreign parts, and come back laden with rich goods: so the church of Christ, and her true members, like ships of burden, trade to heaven, by prayer and other religious exercises, and return with the riches of grace and mercy, to help them in time of need; and though they have often difficult and dangerous passages, are tossed with tempests, and covered with billows; yet, Christ being their pilot, faith their sail, and hope their anchor, they weather the seas, ride out all storms, and come safe home with their merchandise;
she bringeth her food from afar: from a far country, from Egypt particularly, from whence corn for bread, as the word here used signifies, was fetched and carried in ships to divers parts of the world p; to which the allusion may be: in a spiritual sense, it may mean that the church brings her food or bread from heaven, the good land afar off; where God her father, Christ her husband, and her friends the angels are; with whom she carries on a correspondence, and from hence she has her food for her family; not from below, on earth; not dust, the serpent’s food; nor ashes, on which a deceitful heart feeds; nor husks, which swine eat; but the corn of heaven, angels’ food, the hidden and heavenly manna; the bread of life, which comes down from heaven; the Gospel of the grace of God, the good news from a far country.
p Bacchylides spud Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 2. c. 3. p. 39.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The following proverb praises the extent of her housewifely transactions:
14 She is like the ships of the merchant –
Bringeth her food from afar.
She is (lxx ) like merchant ships ( , indeterminate, and thus to be read koonjoth ), i.e., she has the art of such ships as sail away and bring wares from a distance, are equipped, sent out, and managed by an enterprising spirit; so the prudent, calculating look of the brave wife, directed towards the care and the advancement of her house, goes out beyond the nearest circle; she descries also distant opportunities of advantageous purchase and profitable exchange, and brings in from a distance what is necessary for the supply of her house, or, mediately, what yields this supply ( , Cod. Jaman. , cf. under Isa 10:6), for she finds that source of gain she has espied.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(14) She bringeth her food from afar.Looks for opportunities of buying cheaply at a distance from home, instead of paying a larger price on the spot.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. She bringeth her food from afar What she needs for sustenance, for convenience, for ornament, which she does not produce herself, she procures by exchange of commodities. She exports and imports. She carries on a profitable commerce.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 31:14. She is like the merchant ships The woman of oeconomy is, with regard to her husband, like a ship which comes from foreign countries freighted with all kinds of wealth. She brings to her husband an abundance of goods of all sorts. Under the name of food, or bread, is comprehended provision in general. This verse might be paraphrased, “She lays up in her house all sorts of provisions, like a vessel, which, arriving from a long voyage, brings all kinds of precious merchandize.” The LXX render it, She is like a merchant-vessel, which bringeth riches from afar. Calmet.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Pro 31:14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
Ver. 14. She is like the merchants’ ships.] That is, She gets wealth apace; yea, though she stir not off her stool, and studies how to buy everything at best hand, though she send far for it. Of the Low Country men it is said, Peterent ccelum navibus Belgae, si navibus peti posset. So the good housewife would do anything to further thrift.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 31:24, 1Ki 9:26-28, 2Ch 9:10, Eze 27:3-36