Proverbs 31:2-24

²What, my darling? what, the darling of my womb? what, the darling of my desires? (What, my darling? what is it, the darling of my womb? what is it, the answer to my prayers?)

³Give thou not thy chattel to women (or Give thou not all thy substance to women), and thy riches to do away kings.

⁴A! Lemuel, do not thou give wine to kings; for no private there is, where drunkenness reigneth. (O Lemuel! do not thou give wine to kings; for there is no secret place, where drunkenness can reign.)

⁵Lest peradventure they drink, and forget dooms, and change the cause of the sons of a poor man. (Lest perhaps they drink, and forget justice, and pervert the cause of the poor.)

⁶Give ye cider to them that mourn, and wine to them that be of bitter soul.

⁷Drink they, and forget they their neediness; and think they no more on their sorrow.

⁸Open thy mouth for a dumb man, and open thy mouth for the causes of all sons that pass forth. (Speak thou for the dumb, and for the causes of all those who pass forth before thee.)

⁹Deem thou that that is just, and deem thou a needy man and a poor man. (Judge thou with judgement, or with discernment, and give thou justice to the needy and to the poor.)

¹⁰Who shall find a strong woman? the price of her is far, and from the last ends. (Who shall find a woman of virtue? her value is far above anything else.)

¹¹The heart of her husband trusteth in her; and he shall not have need to robberies. (Her husband trusteth her in his heart; and he shall have no need for robbery, or for theft.)

¹²She shall yield to him good, and not evil, in all the days of her life.

¹³She sought wool and flax; and wrought by the counsel of her hands. (She sought out wool and flax; and skillfully worked them with her hands.)

¹⁴She is made as the ship of a merchant (or She is made like a merchant’s ship), that beareth his bread from a far.

¹⁵And she rose by night, and gave lifelode to her menials, and meats to her handmaidens. (And she arose at night, and gave sustenance to her servants, and food to her servantesses.)

¹⁶She beheld a field, and bought it; of the fruit of her hands she planted a vinery. (She saw a field, and bought it; and from the fruit of her hands, or out of her earnings, she planted a vineyard.)

¹⁷She girded her loins with strength, and made strong her arm.

¹⁸She tasted, and saw, that her merchandise was good; her lantern shall not be quenched in the night.

¹⁹She put her hands to the wharve, and her fingers took the spindle.

²⁰She opened her hand to the needy man, and stretched forth her hands to a poor man. (She opened her hands to the needy, and stretched forth her hands to the poor.)

²¹She shall not dread for her house of the colds of snow (or She shall not have fear for her household concerning the cold and the snow); for all her menials be clothed with double clothes.

²²She made to her a ray-cloth; bis, either white silk, and purple is the cloth of her. (She made a ray-cloth for herself; bis, or white silk, and purple maketh her cloak.)

²³Her husband is noble in the gates, when he sitteth with the senators of the earth. (Her husband is well-regarded at the city gates, when he sitteth with the elders of the land.)

²⁴She made linen cloth, and sold it; and gave a girdle to a merchant.