The Proverb’s 31 Woman’s Servants
“The Proverbs 31 Woman was a career woman! After all, she had servants and these servants watched her children so she could have a career. Besides, these servants are career women. There were absolutely career women back in biblical days!” Yes, the modern woman wants to justify having a career that keeps her away from home all day long, putting her children in day care, and working for a boss, so they scour God’s Word and make up women who are like this.
Here’s the verse they use to justify the Proverb’s 31 woman having servants. “She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens” (Proverbs 31:15). According to the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary, maidens are “young women or virgins.” Therefore, they were most likely unmarried or without children. They were probably both. They helped the Proverbs 31 woman with household chores.
We must remember that back then, there were no refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, dryers, running water, indoor plumbing, toilets, dishwashers, toasters, electricity, heating at the flip of a switch, and so on. These are all our “servants” or maidens nowadays. There was a LOT more to running a home before the industrial revolution. Women had to work hard in their homes to keep it going.
The reason these maidens didn’t have children is because there was no birth control. Once a woman married, she had children, if she was able, and had to stay home with her children. These maidens were being trained how to be good keepers at home while they worked for the Proverbs 31 woman. As soon as they married, they went home to care for their own homes. If I was to guess, all of the “maidens” that worked for the Proverb’s 31 woman were not married, since it took so much to run a home back then. If they were married, they would need to be tending to their own homes.
We all are blessed to have these servants or “maidens” with modern technology. A lot of our work is simply at the flip of a switch! Housework takes a lot less physical labor than it did back in biblical days. There was no way for a woman with a family to put her children in day care (there were none), go to work in an office building or factory (there were no factories where she could have made clothing), and work for a boss. She was known for looking well to the ways of her household and not eating the bread of idleness (Proverbs 31:27). She was a keeper at home.
It’s foolhardy for women to take women from Scripture to justify their lifestyles. God wants women at home caring for their husbands, children, and home. This is the safest place for women and children. Their children need them full time. Take God’s commands to us as is, and don’t try to twist them to say something they are not. The best place to be is in the center of God’s will. If you can’t come home full time yet, keep asking the Lord to provide a way. He wants you home, and with Him nothing is impossible!
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
Proverbs 31:30
12 thoughts on “The Proverb’s 31 Woman’s Servants”
I find it odd when Christian women say that this standard is unattainable. Just think of all the spare time women today have over the bible women. Heck just all the time they have over their great-grandmother et al. Now I know none are perfect but I think that women today have it easy in comparison. But the one difficulty remains the same ore worse…that difficulty is self.
Wonderful. Thank you. ?
May God bless your ministry.
The last several years my eyes have been opened to how much people want to be enslaved. From looking to Daddy Gov’ment to provide to willingly putting yourself under a boss to determine your daily schedule and priorities.
Women who insist that the Proverbs 31 woman was a career woman in the modern sense are themselves looking for an excuse to be enslaved. Why would any woman in her right mind want to turn her time and attention away from her family for the goals of someone else? The Proverbs 31 woman was an entrepreneuer. She determined her schedule and investments. She didn’t farm her responsibilities out to the public school system or daycares. She prioritized her own time, rising early while her household slept and working late. Everything was directly for the benefit of her family. From the use of her time to the money she brought in.
I’m teaching my children to be self-sufficient. I would love for both of them to be free and not willingly trade the priority of raising a family for someone else’s priorities.
Proverbs 31 was written down by King Solomon who learned it from his mother. She was telling him what a good wife looked like. The wife of King Solomon would’ve been a Queen, so of course she had servants! I’m a history buff, and all the books I’ve read talk about the maids and cooks and such being teenage girls working alongside their mothers, or if they were married they would be working with their children helping/nearby. Not to mention, that servants lived on the premises, so working in the royal household was literally working in their own household since they lived there too! So most of the time throughout many cultures, the servants didn’t work outside their home at all. Problem solved!
I would imagine that some of these maidens were also relatives. My mom told me that many young women went to live with relatives to help out after a new baby or such. She said she was often at her aunt’s house because they had a lot of kids. She didn’t live there because they were next door, but she often helped with dinner, dressing the little ones for church/school. She said they wouldn’t have dreamt of bringing in an unrelated person. That’s probably why I always had relatives living within a block or two. That changed when my mom went to work. And not in a good way. However, they needed her to work to pay the mortgage on the bigger fancier house far from all that support. How insane, it seems to me now.
Thank you, Lori! AMEN. I agree. Praying to come home so that I can be in the center of God’s will. His first step was moving back in the home as a working mom (during COVID) but I know that HIS will is to have my main and only priority be caring for my home, children and husband. Praying hard!
This is another excellent post Lori! Even if women work before they marry, I believe once married they should, as God instructed, be keepers of the home. This is especially true with motherhood. How can any woman seriously believe that being a clerk, a waitress or even a CEO of a big corporation is more important than raising children? We have three children, 2 boys, aged 22 and 20 and a girl of 16 and we have never had any serious issues with any of them. Not a thing. People say they are amazing children and ask us how we have done it! Even at church I hear stories from fellow parishioners of children or grandchildren who have “gone off the rails” – and to some extent you can understand why with all the temptations the Devil has placed in their way. The answer though is simple, my wife has always been there for them: she took them to school, she took them to clubs, she tucked them in at night and she read them stories. During the school holidays, because my work meant it was difficult to have holidays, she would often take them out for days – to museums or historic towns and such like. In short, when she wasn’t looking after the house she spent as much time as possible, nurturing them and loving them and listening to them – in other words being a mother! And she absolutely loved it. God intended the family to be the bedrock of Christian society with a clear hierarchy as there is under God – those that deviate from HIS path are likely to find their way littered with false tracks and cul-de-sacs. The answers we all seek lay in The Scriptures. Not “watered down” or “adjusted” for “modern” thinking but as they were set down and that is why it is such a joyous thing to discover a site such as this which states Biblical Truth.
My VT2! You are loved and treasured! Thank you for keeping this Ministry focused on Holiness! You are such light in this big internet! You are prayed for daily! Love to you from the East Coast! Psalm 34:3
It is weird, it’s not even a high standard. If anything it’s a good baseline, where this idea that it’s the highest, and unachievable standard comes from is beyond me and totally bogus. I’d guess it’s just more of the spirit of the age where even the lowest bar is too high for women.
I love this post and especially your last paragraph that reminds us that we are obeying God and living out our purpose when we’re home, at the center of His will. I’m so glad you acknowledge that home is by far the safest place for women. This world is not our home and it’s increasingly dangerous to women, whether at work or driving alone at night, etc. Too many things can happen to women to ignore that fact. Even emotionally or psychologically, it’s important for wives to be at home. I learned this the hard way. I love people and making friends, but sometimes I’ve made the wrong kind of friends (non-Christians or just unkind women) and then wasted much time worrying about the relationship, worrying I did something wrong when really people (women!) are often sensitive and complicated. It’s not God’s will for me to be worrying about all sorts of relationships that aren’t my main ones. I’ve come see work and other social issues as borrowing trouble that’s not meant for me shoulder. I think there’s a connection between wives working and why women today suffer from so much anxiety. At home, my husband loves and always cares for me. I trust him implicitly and feel fulfilled and calm. Only if I’m home can I fully focus on the many gifts God and my husband have given. I need to focus on pleasing, obeying, and revering my husband. Some look down on this, but it brings such deep pleasure and love to my life. Work and many social distractions undermine my purpose as a help meet. God knows my heart and my shortcomings. His design is perfect for me. Thank you for sharing God’s beautiful plan and helping women focus on the sanctuary that is our homes. I am praying that more women open their ears to you and Ken!
You have to remember, single mother, women whose husbands expect them to work (which is pretty common right now), and poor people who need the second income because the husband doesn’t make enough money.