Working Women

(Proverbs 31:16 KJV)  She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.

One of the ideas I have always endorsed and promoted is the wife in the home.  I am mainly against women with children going out and being wage earners.  Making your children a primary focus is still valid, but this verse gives a different spin on the acceptable activities of a wife.  This excellent wife has “fruit of her hands” (earnings NASB) (6529/3709).  This could be from many different actions listed in this passage.  Look it over and see all the ways she generates income.  She does not use those earnings as her “mad money” to gratify her desires, she uses them to increase family wealth.

Women in Israel had much more freedom that women in surrounding cultures.  Respectable women in those days lived much like the women of fundamentalist Muslims today.  They wore veils and did not go anywhere unescorted.  Pagans visiting Israel were shocked at how brazen the women were by their standards.

So?  Be grateful for the equality that comes from our Biblical heritage.  This idea that all are equal before the law did not come from some Eastern religion or great philosopher.  It is rooted in the idea that the ground is level at the foot of the cross.