to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
tapestry
מַרְבַדִּ֥יםmar.va.Dim
H4765
a coverlet · noun, common masculine plural absolute
clothing
לְבוּשָֽׁהּle.vu.Shah
H3830
a garment (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
silk
שֵׁ֖שׁshesh
H8336
bleached stuff · noun, common masculine singular absolute
purple
וְאַרְגָּמָ֣ןve.'ar.ga.Man
H713
purple (the color or the dyed stuff) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Revelation 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
Genesis 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain…
Proverbs 7:16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
Judges 8:26 And the weight of the golden earrings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold; beside ornaments, and collars, and…
Esther 8:15 And Mordecai went out from the presence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, and with a great crown of gold, and with a garment o…
Psalms 45:13-14 The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.
Ezekiel 16:10-13 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with…
1 Peter 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Proverbs 31:10–end
This description of the virtuous woman is designed to show what wives the women should make and what wives the men should choose; it consists of twenty-two verses, each beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order, as some of the Psalms, which makes some think it was no part of the lesson which Lemuel's mother taught him, but a poem by itself, written by some other hand, and perhaps had been commonly repeated among the pious Jews, for the ease of which it was made alphabetical. We have the abridgment of it in the New Testament (Ti1 2:9, Ti1 2:10, Pe1 3:1-6), where the duty prescribed to wives agrees with this description of a good wife; and with good reason is so much stress laid…
coverings of tapestry--or, "coverlets," that is, for beds.
silk--or, "linen" (compare Exo 26:1; Exo 27:9)
and purple--that is, the most costly goods.
John Gill on Proverbs 31:22
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry,.... For the furniture and ornament of her house, or for her bed; which may signify the ordinances of the Gospel, and the decent, orderly, and beautiful administration of them, wherein the church has communion with her Lord; see Sol 1:16. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "garments of divers colours", such as was Joseph's coat, Genesis 37:3; and, in a spiritual sense, may be applied to the above mentioned garments, and agrees with what goes before and follows;
her clothing is silk and purple; the Tyrian purple, which, Strabo says (x), is the best; or purple silk, silk of a purple colour: or rather fine linen of this colour; a dress suitable to a…
From the protecting, and at the same time ornamental clothing of the family, the poet proceeds to speak of the bed-places, and of the attire of the housewife:
22 מ She prepareth for herself pillows;
Linen and purple is her raiment.
Regarding מרבדּים (with ב raphatum), vid., at Pro 7:16. Thus, pillows or mattresses (Aquila, Theodotion, περιστρώματα; Jerome, stragulatam vestem; Luther, Decke = coverlets) to make the bed soft and to adorn it (Kimchi: ליפּות על המטות, according to which Venet. κόσμια); Symmachus designates it as ἀμφιτάπους, i.e., τάπητες (tapetae, tapetia, carpets), which are hairy (shaggy) on both sides.
(Note: Vid., Lumbroso, Recherches sur l'Economie politique de l'Egypt…
The Church Fathers
The beauty of a good thing pleases the more, if it be shown under various aspects. For those are good things, whereof the texture of the priestly robe was the token, that is to say, either the Law or the church, which latter has made two garments for her spouse, as it is written—the one of action, the other of spirit, weaving together the threads of faith and works.
She made herself a striped garment, etc. A striped garment, which is usually made very strong by varied weaving, signifies the strong works of the Church and her diverse ornaments of virtues. Of which the prophet, in the praise of the supreme king, namely that man, sang: "The queen stood at your right hand in a garment of gold, clothed with variety" (Psalm 45). Fine linen and purple are her clothing; fine linen, in the whiteness of pure conscience and conversation; purple, in the shedding of precious blood. For fine linen is of a white color; and purple, made from the blood of a creature called purpura, has the appearance of blood itself: hence it was beautifully said by the Fathers that the Holy Church, blooming with the flowers of the elect, has lilies in peace, and roses in war. Likewise, because fine linen, which grows green from the earth, through long and varied exercises, loses its moisture and native greenness, is brought to the adornment of a white garment. Purple, however, is the royal attire. The Church is clothed with fine linen when the elect chastise their bodies and subject them to servitude; with purple, when they exercise the same continence, not for popular favor, but to acquire the blessedness of the eternal kingdom. But this habit of virtues in the present indeed seems contemptible to the ignorant, but in the future, what it was will be clearly evident. Hence, John beautifully reports in his Apocalypse that he heard the voice of the saints saying, "Let us rejoice and exult, because the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has prepared herself, and it was given to her to be clothed with bright, clean fine linen" (Revelation 19). For fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dress — (1.) Materials used. The earliest and simplest an apron of fig-leaves sewed together (Gen. 3:7); then skins of animals (3:21). Elijah’s dress was probably the skin of a sheep (2 Kings 1:8). The…
Linen — (1.) Heb., pishet, pishtah, denotes “flax,” of which linen is made (Isa. 19:9); wrought flax, i.e., “linen cloth”, Lev. 13:47, 48, 52, 59; Deut. 22:11. Flax was early cultivated in Egypt (Ex. 9:31),…
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Silk — Heb. demeshek, “damask,” silk cloth manufactured at Damascus, Amos 3:12. A.V., “in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch;” R.V., “in the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a…
Wife — The ordinance of marriage was sanctioned in Paradise (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4-6). Monogamy was the original law under which man lived, but polygamy early commenced (Gen. 4:19), and continued to prevail…
Writing — The art of writing must have been known in the time of the early Pharaohs. Moses is commanded “to write for a memorial in a book” (Ex. 17:14) a record of the attack of Amalek. Frequent mention is…
Carpet · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Economics · HOUSEHOLD — HOUSEHOLD
Garments · Materials used for: Silk — Materials used for: Silk
A capable wife’s industriousness enables her husband to distinguish himself among community leaders. In ancient Israel, civic leaders met at the city gates to conduct trials and make decisions.
Rashi on Proverbs 31:22
beautiful bedspreads Heb. מרבדים, beautiful spreads for the bed, as in (above 7:16) “I have bedecked my couch with covers (מרבדים רבדתי).”
Tapestry · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Wife · Domestic duties of — Domestic duties of
Wives · Good: Are diligent and prudent — Good: Are diligent and prudent
Woman · Good and virtuous, described — Good and virtuous, described
Women · Spun — Spun
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
