Bible Strands
Proverbs 31:12
She brings him good and not harm all the days of her life.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The passage concludes a maternal instruction to a son regarding the conduct of a capable wife. The speaker summarizes the practical outcome of the preceding description of her daily labors.
The words — The Hebrew verb גַּמְלָתְהוּ (gamlato) literally means she feeds or she repays him. It is paired with the nouns טוֹב (tov, good) and רָע (ra, evil) to establish a binary of consistent provision.
The thread — The theme of reliable provision appears in 1 Samuel 25:18, where Abigail hastily gathers bread, wine, and meat for David. It also echoes the theme of divine restraint from violence in 1 Samuel 25:26, where God prevents bloodshed through timely intervention.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that consistent, tangible provision is the measurable proof of a wife’s character. It asks the reader to evaluate faithfulness by observing sustained daily action rather than isolated moments.
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
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:18 Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five butchered sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. She loaded them on donkeys
- 1 Samuel 25:26 Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, since the LORD has held you back from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, may your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.