Tag: Devotional

Today’s proverb says, A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is. Such a word comes when “the mouth is under Divine discipline” (Bridges). Have we forgotten the miracle of speech? How tragic when one loses the ability to speak! Let us not take for granted the wonderful fact that we can communicate good words to one another, or abuse it by base or unworthy words. What a blessing it is to speak that blessed word when most needed.

The slanderer and backbiter, the railer and flatterer, the unrighteous witness and the babbler, have all something in common. They kill with the tongue!

Perhaps few men knew more about women than Solomon! There are a number of proverbs that make frequent references to the character of the female. The Hebrew word for Virtuous (chayil) is multi-faceted. It includes the ideas of wealth, strength, power, army, ability, or efficiency. It often involves, as here, moral worth, as also in the case of Ruth (Ru. 3:11). Women were held in a subordinate position in the past, and even in some countries are still held down. This woman is a woman of strength, “no doll or plaything” (Maclaren). As we might say, She has a lot in her. Wordsworth described her poetically: