Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 31:28
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband [also], and he praiseth her.
Pro 31:28
Her children arise up, and call her blessed.
The childrens praise
This is part of the just debt owing to the virtuous woman. It is enough to make virtuous people happy that they are blessed of God. Yet this is thrown in as the reward of virtue, that among men also ordinarily it hath its praise. The praise that attends the virtuous woman comes from her own children.
1. It is a great comfort to those who are good themselves to see their children rising up. Here rising up means, stir up themselves to pursue the same course as their good mother.
2. The children of the virtuous woman call her blessed. It is her honour that she shall be praised by them that are best acquainted with her and most indebted to her.
I. The character of those parents to whom honour is due from their children.
1. Those that are truly wise deserve praise.
2. Those that are truly kind.
3. Those that are industrious and careful.
4. Those that are charitable.
5. Those that are virtuous; that is, sober and temperate, just and righteous in their conversation, exemplary in integrity and uprightness.
6. Those that are pious and religious towards God.
II. The duty of children in discharging their debt to their parents.
1. Maintain a grateful remembrance, and, on occasion, make honourable mention of our godly parents.
2. Give thanks to God for them.
3. We ought to be very sensible of our loss when such parents are removed from us. (Philip Henry, M.A.)
The blessing of the pious mother
The family is the profoundest and most sacred of all our social relationships. It is a type of spiritual relationships, and a means of realising them. In this delineation of the excellent woman the influence of the mother is more especially recognised. The distinctive honour of the pious mother is that she receives the benediction of her own children. They do her honour, speak of her with reverence and love and blessing. What must a mother be in order to inherit such benediction of her children? Notice her prudent regulation of the affairs of her household; her kindness, gentleness, and benignity; her piety. The religiousness that influences a child is the religiousness of common life, the religiousness that is the life that imbues all things with its feeling and sanctifies all things with its presence. Urge upon young women the present cultivation of such a character as will make them wise and holy mothers. (Henry Allon, D.D.)
Gratitude for a good mother
Mrs. Susannah Wesley was a model mother. The wife of a country curate, she brought up her large family so well that all Christendom has cause to bless her name. At her death her children gathered around her bed and sang a hymn of praise in gratitude to God for such a mother. She is called the Mother of Methodism, so much did her famous sons John and Charles Wesley owe to her influence and training. General Garfield said that his was a model mother. When young and headstrong he obtained work on a canal boat against her wishes. One dark night, when alone on the boat, he fell overboard. It was in a lock, where the water was deepest. He could not swim, and was sinking when his hand touched a rope hanging over the side, apparently by accident. He climbed on deck and found that the rope was only held by the slightest twist round a block. He felt it was Gods hand which had saved him, and resolved to start for home at once. He found his mother and described his miraculous escape. What hour was it? she asked. He told her, and she said, At that very moment I was praying for you, my son, that God would protect and bless you. And in after-life Garfield used to say, I owe everything to my mother.
Her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Gratitude for a good wife
The Earl of Beaconsfield said, Every step in my life to honour and success I owe to my good and faithful wife. President Lincoln, on receiving a presentation, said, I will hand this to the lady who, by her counsel and help, has made it possible in anywise for me to serve my country. A working man at a great meeting said recently, My wife was a good woman before her conversion, but now she is worth her weight in diamonds. When Jonathan Edwards was discharged from his appointment he came home in despair. But his wife smiled bravely and said, My dear, you have often longed for leisure to write your book, and now it has come. I have lighted a fire in your room, and set the table with pens and paper. He was so cheered that he set to work at once, and wrote the book that made him famous. (S. M. Evans.)
A wife praised by her husband
The late Robert Moffat had a wife of rare excellence. For more than fifty years she shared his toils in South Africa. The Secretary of the London Missionary Society says, After their return from Africa, while talking over their labours at the Mission House, Mrs. Moffat said, Robert affirms that I do not hinder him in his work. No, indeed, replied Dr. Moffat, but I can affirm that she has often sent me out to missionary work for months together, and in my absence has managed the station better than I could have done myself. Her husbands first exclamation on finding her gone was, For forty-three years I have had her to pray for me.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed]
20. She considers a good education next to Divine influence; and she knows also that if she train up a child in the way he should go, when he is old he will not depart from it.
1) Her children are well bred; they rise up and pay due respect.
2) They are taught the fear of the Lord, and obedience to his testimonies; therefore they call her blessed. So they are of a decent, orderly, respectable, religious behaviour.
3) Her husband is so satisfied with her conduct towards himself, his household, his business, and their children, that he praiseth her. He shows himself sensible of her excellence, and encourages her, in her work, by the commendations he bestows.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Her children; whose testimony is the more considerable, because they have been constant eye-witnesses of her whole carriage, and therefore must have seen her misdemeanours, if there had been any, as well as her virtues.
Arise up; either,
1. In token of reverence to her, which agrees not to the following clause, wherein the same phrase is understood concerning her husband. Or rather,
2. That they may seriously and industriously apply themselves to the work of setting forth her praises, as this phrase is used, Gen 37:25; Exo 2:17, and oft elsewhere. For sitting being commonly the posture of idleness, men that set about any work are said to rise in order thereunto.
Call her blessed, both for her own excellency, and for many happy fruits which they have gathered from her wise and godly education.
He praiseth her, in the following words.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
28. She is honored by those whobest know her.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Her children arise up,…. As olive plants around her table; grow up to maturity of age, and ripeness of judgment, and so capable of observing things, and doing the work here ascribed to them: or they rise up in reverence of her, and respect to her, suitable to the relation they stand in to her: or rather it signifies their readiness to show a regard unto her, and their setting about the work of commendation of her in earnest: or else their earliness in doing it; they rise in the morning, as Aben Ezra’s note is; her lamp not being extinct in the night. Jarchi interprets these “children” of disciples; but they are to be understood of regenerate persons, young converts, born in Zion, and brought up by her; the children of that Jerusalem that is the mother of us all, Isa 54:1;
and call her blessed; bless God for her, for such a mother, and wish themselves as happy as she is; they pray for her blessedness, peace, and prosperity, as all Zion’s children should, Ps 122:6; they pronounce her blessed, as well they may, since she is blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ; and so are all in her family that truly belong to her, her children and her servants, Ps 84:4; see So 6:9;
her husband [also], and he praiseth her; that is, he is ready also to rise up and speak in her praise and commendation. Jarchi says this is the holy blessed God. Christ is the church’s husband, who is her Maker;
[See comments on Pr 31:23]; he praises her for her beauty, though she owes it all to him; for her comely parts and gracefulness, which he describes with wonder; for her dress, her garments, though they are his own; for her faith, love, humility, and other graces, though they are his gifts; see So 1:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Now begins the finale of this song in praise of the virtuous woman:
28 Her sons rise up and bless her,
Her husband (riseth up) and praiseth her.
The Piel in such a connection is denom. of ( ). Her children rise up ( , like e.g., Jer 26:17, but here, perhaps, with the associated idea of reverential honour) and bless her, that she has on her part brought the house and them to such prosperity, such a position of respect, and to a state where love ( ) reigns, and her husband rises up and sings her praise.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
28. Her children call her blessed As a consequence of the above ordering and control of her family, her children grow up in virtuous habits, regularity of life, and respectfulness of demeanour. They rise up to do her honour, and pronounce blessings on such a mother.
Her husband praiseth She also commands the respect and homage of her husband, as well she may. Even good husbands are not always as careful to recognise the services and virtues of their wives as they ought to be. A good wife looks for and deserves expressions of approbation and encouragement.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Pro 31:28 Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband [also], and he praiseth her.
Ver. 28. Her children arise up, and call her blessed. ] As they grow to any height, and consider their beholdingness, so they bless her, and bless God for her: they bless the time that ever they were born of her, and so virtuously bred by her; being ready to say of her, as once Deborah said of Jael, “Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be; blessed shall she be above women in the tent.” Jdg 5:24 Blessed be the womb that bare us, and the paps that gave us suck.
Her husband also.
And he shall praise her.
a Honos alit artes. Virtus laudata crescit. Omnes laudis studio incenduntur.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
children = sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
children: Pro 31:1, 1Ki 2:19, Psa 116:16, 2Ti 1:5, 2Ti 3:15-17
her husband: Son 7:1-9, Isa 62:4, Isa 62:5, *marg.
Reciprocal: Gen 30:13 – Happy am I Gen 48:12 – he bowed himself 2Sa 14:22 – thanked Psa 127:4 – so are children Son 6:9 – The daughters 1Co 11:2 – I praise 1Ti 5:4 – learn
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE REWARD OF THE RIGHTEOUS WOMAN
Her children arise up, and call her blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Pro 31:28
I. She has the praise of her husband.The husband is secondary in the picture, but we are told something about him. He is known as were Job and Boaz in the gates of his city. An elder and a judge, he sits there to be consulted in the simple way in which justice was administered in those primitive times. He praiseth her; not waiting till she is absent, as did Thomas Carlyle, to say pleasant things which found no counterpart in his words to his wife when they were together; nor putting off the discovery of her virtue until she was dead, and making up for a lifetime of neglect by a costly monument and an extravagant epitaph.
II. She has her childrens blessing.Her children rise up and call her blessed. To them she has been a true mother. She does not affect the fear of a large family which is the shame of some countries. It is the absence of pious mothers which makes the abundance of godless sons and daughters. And on the other hand the chances are that where there is true religion at home the children will one by one become converted. Our prisons and penitentiaries and reformatories are the fruits of homes which are no homes. The drift towards the jail starts sometimes from the very cradle.
III. She has the honour of her neighbours.Let her own works praise her in the gates. The great Greek historian said that womans highest praise consisted in not being mentioned at all. That is not the teaching of Revelation. Womans highest praise is when the seeds sown in silence have grown into flowers of love liness and fruit that is sweet to the taste, and the whole community is forced to yield to her the honour which is her due, exalting, with heartfelt admiration and with deep gratitude to God, the wife, the mother, the ministrant to the poor.
IV. And as the summing up of the whole she reaps the harvest of her life.Praise her according to the fruit of her hands. Her life is her best monument; her family her fittest memorial.
So closes the book of Proverbs. In the first chapter we found father and mother advising a listening son; now we find a woman drawn in full length with a skill of heaven and the feeling of love. Such a woman is the mother of the world. The Bible recognises the beauty, the dignity, and the worth of women beyond all other books. This portrait in its rich colours, vivid lines, and harmonious completeness, has never been excelled. Here we have
A woman mixed of such fine elements
That were all virtue and religion dead
Shed make them newly, being what she was.
Matthew Henry quaintly concludes, Thus is shut up this looking-glass for ladies, which they are desired to open and dress themselves by it; and if they do so, their adorning will be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Illustrations
(1) It is assumed by most commentators that the poem which closes the Book of Proverbs forms a part of the pious counsel given by the Lady of Massa to her son. Possibly it may. The style of matron delineated is such as a princess might be in those primitive times, and may have been intended to guide Lemuel in his marriage choice. It is an alphabetical song, each of the twenty-two verses of the original beginning with a letter of the alphabet in its usual order. In this form some of the most beautiful and elaborate of the Hebrew poems are written: several of Davids Psalms, particularly the 119th, where eight consecutive verses begin with the same letter. Stuart says, with more than ordinary enthusiasm, It is a song which is at the same time both beautiful and noble. The picture is certainly very attractive, and shows the hand of a skilful artist. It is a striking specimen of the simplex munditiis.
(2) The Age of Home-spun was the happy title of one of Horace Bushnells wisest addresses. It was a good age to celebrate. Benjamin Franklin records that he had once been clothed from head to foot in woollen and linen of his wifes manufacture, and, says he, I never was prouder of my dress in my life. Our word spinster commemorates the historical fact that the bride, before leaving her fathers house, spun her own linen. The model wife in our lesson is afraid neither of weather nor of want. The snow does not make her shiver, and she has no fears as she looks on, for she shall rejoice in time to come. Probably the word scarlet should be translated with double garment; but the idea that red is a warm colour is a very old superstition, and holds still.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Pro 31:28. Her children arise up Whose testimony is the more considerable, because they have been constant eye-witnesses of her whole conduct, and, therefore, must have seen her misdemeanours, if there had been any, as well as her virtues; and call her blessed Both for her own excellences, and for many happy fruits which they have gathered from her wise and godly education of them. Her husband also Ariseth to bear witness to her excellence; and he praiseth her Namely, in the following words.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
31:28 Her children rise up, and {o} call her blessed; her husband [also], and he praiseth her.
(o) That is, do her reverence.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Her husband and children, those who know her best, appreciate and praise her for her many excellent qualities. This poem pictures her caring for others, but Pro 31:27-28 show that, as a result, others care for her.