Heroine
A valiant wife who can find? Her price is far beyond corals. Proverbs 31:10 (Waltke)
Valiant – Hebrew wisdom literature is filled with poetry. It’s not the kind of poetry that we employ since it does not rhyme sounds. Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas or concepts. This is the opening line of one of the most famous Hebrew poems. This poem is an acrostic. That means that the first word of each new line starts with an ordered sequence of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So, this line starts with the word ‘eshet, a word based in the Hebrew letter aleph, the first letter of the alphabet. It actually reads, “a wife (‘eshet) valiant (khayil).”
Now that you know this is a poem, it is important to ask, “What kind of poetry is this?” Is it romantic poetry, a ballad, a chorus, an epic or something else? I suppose you are already saying, “But who cares?” We care because these verses are very often used to support claims about what a good wife should be and how a good wife should act. But what if the entire poem has a different purpose? What if this kind of poem is not a call to correct behavior but rather an acknowledgment of earned honor? Would that change how you use the verses? It should. Let’s see why.
This is heroic poetry. It is a declaration of the noble status of a wife who exhibits godly behavior. There are interesting and significant parallels in other places in Scripture, for example, Ruth is called an ‘eshet khayil (Ruth 3:11). You will find the same idea ascribed to Deborah (Judges 5) and the songs of 2 Samuel 18 and 21. What this poem tells us is quite simple: God’s heroines are recognized by what they do.
Ah, maybe we need to read that last line again. It is behavior that exhibits heroic status. We nod in agreement, but we don’t recognize just how foreign this thought is to what we value in women. The heroic poem declares that God values action on behalf of others so highly that this woman is considered a heroine. But we grew up Greek. We value other things, like physical beauty, economic dependence and domestication. We might acknowledge that women play a growing role in business and politics, but more often than not, men want to marry a wife who is gorgeous, placid and subservient. In fact, the church often misuses Paul’s comments to reinforce those very Greek ideals.
But you won’t find them in this poem. This heroine is lauded for her economic strategy, cunning and expertise. She is prized for her “take charge” approach, praised for her profit-making efforts and honored for her charity. Her stamp of approval is related to her self-sacrifice for the benefit of others, not the shape of her body. She is a wise teacher, an industrious contributor, a philanthropist and societal icon. We lust after a crop of celebrities who know nothing about true heroism. Our role models are deteriorated Greek goddesses, not Hebrew heroines.
And here’s the punch line: by honoring the valiant wife in heroic poetry, the author offers this concept as the role model for all the daughters of Zion. Honor follows action, and for all women, heroic action is the first godly option.
