Bible Strands
Proverbs 31:10
A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — A rhetorical question within a longer instructional poem (Proverbs 31), positioned between a charge to a ruler (v. 9) and a statement of the husband's trust (v. 11). The speaker is not named in the verse itself.
The words — חַיִל (chayil) is the load-bearing word: literally "military strength, valor," not a generic "character." The BSB's "noble character" softens what is, in the Hebrew, a word of active capacity.
The thread — Proverbs 12:4, 18:22, and 19:14 all frame the virtuous wife as a gift from the LORD rather than a product of human effort. The rhetorical "who can find?" echoes the same theme of divine provision.
Why it lands — It sets a standard of active capability and then immediately relativizes it by asking who can attain it, directing the reader toward the source rather than the achievement.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 19:14 Houses and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD.
- Proverbs 12:4 A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown, but she who causes shame is like decay in his bones.
- Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.
- Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
- Proverbs 3:15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire compares with her.
- Song of Solomon 6:8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and maidens without number,
- Ruth 3:11 And now do not be afraid, my daughter. I will do for you whatever you request, since all my fellow townspeople know that you are a woman of noble character.
- Proverbs 20:15 There is an abundance of gold and rubies, but lips of knowledge are a rare treasure.
- Ecclesiastes 7:28 While my soul was still searching but not finding, among a thousand I have found one upright man, but among all these I have not found one such woman.
- Proverbs 8:11 For wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire compares with her.