Proverbs 31:10

The question that opens this second movement is not dismissive of women. It is an acknowledgment that the woman this poem describes is a genuine treasure — rare as the rarest gem, and worth more.

A word on the poem itself: these twenty-two verses are a deliberate, complete portrait, constructed as a memory-aiding whole — every verse moving through the entire span of her character from beginning to end. And what unfolds is not an idea or an allegory. It is a woman. A real, godly, industrious wife whose life is wisdom with skin on.

She is rare — not because women are naturally deficient in virtue, but because the search for such a woman is so seldom undertaken rightly. One old preacher said it plainly: one reason for the rarity of the gift is that it is so seldom sought. Too often the search is made for accomplishments and outward beauty — not for virtue. There are many imitations of the real gem that look very much like it before they are tested. The man who knows what he is looking for is a man who has prayed before he has looked, for a virtuous woman is, as another proverb says, from the LORD (18:22).

No treasure is comparable to her. He is a fool who marries the woman that is dressed in silk and rubies, if he would refuse the same woman in plainer clothes.