Proverbs 31:4-25

⁴A! Lemuel, do not thou give wine to kings; for no privacy there is, where drunkenness reigneth.

⁵Lest peradventure they drink, and forget dooms, and change the cause of the sons of a poor man.

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.

⁹Deem thou that that is just, and deem thou a needy man and a poor man.

¹⁰Who shall find a strong woman? the price of her is a far, and from the last or utmost ends.

¹¹The heart of her husband trusteth in her; and he shall not have need to robberies.

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.

¹⁴She is made as the ship of a merchant, that beareth his bread from a far.

¹⁵And she rose by night, and gave lifelode to her menials, and meats to her handmaidens.

¹⁶She beheld a field, and bought it; of the fruit of her hands she planted a vinery or 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.

²¹She shall not dread for her house of the colds of 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 clothing of her.

²³Her husband is noble in the gates, when he sitteth with the senators of the earth.

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

²⁵Strength and fairness is the clothing of her; and she shall laugh in the last day.