King Solomon's words about women

It is interesting to trace Solomon’s references to women in Proverbs. Having hundreds of women around him he learned a great deal about their influence for good or evil.

A man should always rejoice in the wife of his youth (5:18).

A man should not be enticed by an evil woman’s beauty (6:25).

A man should never tamper with his neighbor’s wife (6:29).

A man should never waste his substance on a harlot (7:10, 11, 12; 29:3. See Luke 15:30).

Clamorous, foolish women are empty-headed (9:13).

Gracious women retain their honor (11:16).

Lovely women without discretion are like jewels in a swine’s snout (11:22).

Wise women build substantial homes (14:1).

Foolish women destroy a home (14:1).

Contentious women are like a continual dropping on a rainy day (19:13; 27:15).

Brawling women are not easy to live with (21:9; 25:24).

Angry women are never good company (21:19).

Adulterous women can be self-righteous (30:20).

Odious women ruin the peace of a home (30:21, 23),

Loose women are like snares and nets (Ecclesiastes 7:26; Proverbs 7:10).

A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband (12:4).

The chapter on a virtuous woman (Proverbs 31) whose price is far above rubies, is a eulogy unsurpassed in classical or religious literature.

Photo by Bùi Thanh Tâm on Unsplash

Herbert Lockyer, All the Women of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2016).