Wisdom's Story

The wise woman builds her house,
but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down. (Prov 14:1)

Wisdom is a woman. So says the Bible.

Does not wisdom call?
Does not understanding raise her voice?…
“I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and I find knowledge and discretion.” (Prov 8:1,12)

She has a station in life; she is God’s wife: the ultimate Leading Lady! We learn this from an unusual place: the experience of Job. At his most distressed, Job calls God’s decisions into question, wrongly suspecting that he has been unwisely treated.¹ God’s reply begins with Him rhetorically asking Job if he witnessed the Creation at the origin of time.

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements – surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed’? (Job 38:4-11)

Job is non-plussed: he’s well aware he wasn’t witness to the world’s creation. Why would God challenge him this way? The answer is given subtly centuries later (though Job, with his brilliance, understood it in his day), when God reveals that His partner, Lady Wisdom, did witness God’s creation, and approved of it, and thus God’s works are corroborated as wise. Note the duplication of God’s phrases to Job in Wisdom’s words below.

When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. (Prov 8:27-31)

This allows us to translate what God said to Job years before: “From the beginning of time, Wisdom herself has been witnessing my work and rejoicing in it. Who are you to now claim My operations are unwise?”

It may be metaphor, but this is how we meet our current Leading Lady. Her name is Wisdom, and she has partnered God since time began. This is not to say God is in need of a partner, an assistant, or indeed anything;² it is rather an excellent teaching aid of God’s for mankind, that He is so intricately enmeshed with Wisdom she could be seen as His wife.

Wisdom or Hedonism?

Solomon states his intent: the Proverbs are designed to steer the reader away from seductive Hedonism (also presented as a woman) and towards Lady Wisdom.³ For all his destructive foolishness, Solomon is the one who most intelligently articulates the principal dilemma all humans face. Will you marry Wisdom, or be seduced to partner Hedonism?

Wisdom is female; yet few analysts remark on the clearly gynocentric personification of this noble trait (Elizabeth Johnson is one exception⁴). But Lady Wisdom and the Seductress share some traits; so a discerning eye is needed to tell them apart.

Both women go out into the streets and openly call for men to partner them.

[Wisdom]

Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
in the markets she raises her voice;
at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
at the entrance of the city gates she speaks:
“How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing
and fools hate knowledge?
If you turn at my reproof,
behold, I will pour out my spirit to you;
I will make my words known to you.” (Prov 1:20-23)

[the Seductress]

I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.
And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
“I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.” (Prov 7:7-15)

Both offer lifelong partnership. Who will your lifelong partner be, challenges Solomon? With whom will you ultimately ‘make your bed’? Lady Wisdom? Or the Seductress? We explore both of their metaphorical beds – symbolizing the nature of the relationship they offer. We are shown four principal characteristics of each woman; we can call these four traits the pillars, or bedposts, of the beds they offer.

Lady Wisdom’s Bed

Lady Wisdom’s first ‘bedpost’ is virtue. Fittingly, we learn this from the teaching of a wise woman: King Lemuel’s mother; in fact three of the four bedposts come from her instruction.

Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband safely trusts her;
So he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good and not evil
All the days of her life. (Prov 31:10-12, NKJV)

Wisdom’s second bedpost is a powerful work ethic.

She gets up while it is still night;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks. (Prov 31:15-17)

Third, Wisdom’s bed is covered with two elements: fine linens and purple clothing.

She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant. (Prov 31:22-24)

The ‘fine linen’ symbol can be interpreted confidently: the Bible explains directly that fine linen symbolizes righteousness.⁵ Lady Wisdom’s bed is covered with righteousness and purple. The symbol of purple isn’t certainly known, although purple commonly appears in settings of royalty.

The final pillar we learn from Wisdom’s own testimony; she causes kings to reign.

I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and I find knowledge and discretion.
The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
I have counsel and sound wisdom;
I have insight; I have strength.
By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
by me princes rule,
and nobles, all who govern justly. (Prov 8:12-16)

“By me kings reign,” she says, suggesting that in some way she is the creator of kings, or at least the means by which an average man can be transformed into a king. In essence, Wisdom is announcing a logical truism: any man who rules, yet does not have Wisdom, is an impostor and no true king. This mention of royalty matches the purple-coloured bed coverings well, since, as we hypothesized, purple may symbolize royalty.

The Seductress’ Bed

The Seductress also has four characteristics that will define her metaphorical bedposts. The first we have already seen: she walks the streets by night.

She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait. (Prov 7:11-12)

Secondly, her bed coverings are Egyptian.

“I have covered my bed
with colored linens from Egypt.” (Prov 7:16, NIV)

Wisdom’s bed coverings are righteousness (fine linen) and royalty (purple). By contrast, the Seductress’ colours are Egyptian; and Egypt, along with Babylon and Rome, is one of the three iconic oppressors of God’s people.

The Seductress also reveals her bed is scented.

I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. (Prov 7:17)

Interpreting symbols is always a tricky business, because there’s a risk the interpreter will choose whatever his or her pattern needs, rather than hearing the still, small voice of scripture. I feel we’re on comfortable biblical ground saying myrrh, and myrrh with aloes, are symbols of death. We have biblical evidence to underscore this idea.

[The wise men] saw [Jesus] with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. (Matt 2:11)

It’s widely believed that the three gifts of the wise men represent the three main pillars of Jesus’ ministry: gold for a King, frankincense for a great High Priest, and myrrh for a corpse, the latter connection supported by the cultural context that myrrh was used in that era to counteract the smell of corpses.⁶ Thus, myrrh represents death. This interpretation is corroborated at Jesus’ crucifixion, when 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes are used to prepare Jesus’ body for burial.⁷

We’re being shown that the Seductress’ Bed is perfumed with the spices that are needed to hide the scent of corpses, and which are traditionally used that way.

The final pillar confirms this death motif beyond question.

With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life…
Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death. (Prov 7:21-23, 27)

This explicitly identifies the Seductress’ house as the gateway to the grave, which is why her bed is scented with myrrh: as a clue that death awaits all who lie with her there.

From Theory to Reality

Proverbs presents Wisdom and the Seductress in abstract terms. But Solomon has based them on real women from his life. The Seductress is based on his once-favourite wife, the Lebanese Bride from Solomon’s Song. And Lady Wisdom is based on his ancestor Ruth.

In the Lady Wisdom case, there is a common notion that Bathsheba (Solomon’s mother) is both the author of Proverbs 31 and the woman being described – assuming also that ‘Lemuel’ (meaning ‘of God’) refers to Solomon. I lean away from this idea, because it would mean Bathsheba is praising herself. Self-praise exudes a very different aroma than either wisdom or virtue, and I conclude that Lemuel’s mother, whomever she may be, does not divulge a litany of her own perceived qualities, but rather speaks of another. This still leaves the possibility that Bathsheba is the one giving the wise counsel to Solomon as ‘Lemuel,’ and for Ruth, David’s great-grandmother, to be the virtuous woman whom she praises. Most relevantly, by compiling the explicit, biblical, clues we can strengthen this suggestion and identify the virtuous woman. An early, if subtle, clue is that the original Jewish ordering of the scrolls,⁸,⁹ places the books of Ruth and Solomon’s Song directly following Proverbs.

Lady Wisdom Personified

We recall the four bedposts of Lady Wisdom:

• She is virtuous

• She has a strong work ethic

• She covers her bed with acts of righteousness (fine linen)

• She enables kings to reign

The first pillar is virtue (ḥayil). This Hebrew word appears only one other time in the Bible: when Boaz describes Ruth.

And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous (ḥayil) woman. (Ruth 3:11, NKJV)

This first pillar is explicitly matched by Ruth – and only Ruth! – by matching the Hebrew adjective.

The second bedpost is a strong work ethic. This may explain the otherwise non-essential inclusion in Ruth’s story of how hard she worked in Boaz’s fields, and the surprising amount of barley she had gathered.

So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. She carried it back to town, and [Naomi] saw how much she had gathered. (Ruth 2:17-18, NIV)

The third pillar is acts of righteousness. This could match several biblical women, of course, but is an easy match with Ruth. Boaz is impressed by Ruth’s acts of spiritually-oriented, selfless largesse, and says so.

“All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me… a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:11-12)

Finally, Lady Wisdom creates kings. The book’s closing words announce Ruth’s triumph producing Israel’s greatest King.

This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron… Boaz the father of Obed, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. (Ruth 4:18-22, NIV)

“By me kings reign” says Lady Wisdom. By Ruth, King David reigns, and does so with Wisdom guiding him.

I propose Ruth’s story is given as a literal outworking of how we can understand Lady Wisdom in human form; much the same way as Jesus is shown to us as a literal outworking of how we can understand God in human form.

Ruth’s story is told as a chiasm (Figure 1). It’s a storyline of disaster which reverses into a glorious path to victory, and that reversal pivots around the fulcrum of Ruth’s discerning choice to dedicate herself to Israel’s God.

Lady Wisdom, Ruth, therefore teaches from her life story: the Essence of Wisdom is to connect with God.

The Seductress Personified

The Proverbial Seductress is also shown in abstract form, but is based on the Lebanese Bride. She is the woman with whom Solomon became utterly obsessed: his Song is written solely about her. He resigned his discipleship for her, blaspheming the office he held as King of God’s people. The Song is authored by Solomon, and he writes it in a state of euphoric ecstasy, because he doesn’t yet realize his error in choosing her; this only becomes clear in his later writing of Ecclesiastes.

The four bedposts of the Seductress are:

• She walks the streets and squares at night

• She covers her bed with Egyptian linens

• She perfumes her bed with myrrh and aloes, which symbolize death

• She uses her bed to lure men to their deaths

Each of these is referenced in the Lebanese Bride’s life. Proverbs says about the Seductress’ nighttime hours:

her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares (Prov 7:11-12).

Solomon’s Bride says the same of herself:

All night long on my bed
I looked for the one my heart loves;
I looked for him but did not find him.
I will get up now and go about the city,
through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves. (Song 3:1-2)

The matching of clauses is exact, just as the first bedpost of Lady Wisdom gave an exact word match with Ruth’s character (ḥayil), which establishes a sure foundation to our interpretation.

The second and third pillars are the coverings and perfumes of the Seductress’ bed: they are Egyptian in origin and perfumed with myrrh and aloes. Likewise the Lebanese Bride strikes an Egyptian evocation in the mind of Solomon.

“I liken you, my darling, to a mare among Pharaoh’s chariot horses.” (Song 1:9)

Egypt has an ominous overtone; like Babylon and Rome it is one of the three great oppressors of God’s people, and this verse in the Song likewise hints at a similarly disastrous future for the king. Solomon is head-over-heels for his Bride, yet he unwittingly describes her via a metaphor which leads to his enslavement, a detail he later repeats.¹⁰

The Lebanese Bride has perfumed her bed with many spices. ‘Spice’ is commonly used as a metaphor for pleasure, especially illicit pleasure, and that interpretation resonates here. Solomon experiences multiple pleasures in the company of the Lebanese Bride; she essentially lays beds of many spices before him. This becomes a pun, because Solomon “browsing among the spice beds” is a metaphor for his sexual dalliances with many women.¹¹ Among these spices we notice the ominous presence of myrrh and aloes, the very spices with which many dead bodies, including that of the Lord, will be arrayed.

Bride: “My beloved has gone down to his garden,
to the beds of spices,
to browse in the gardens
and to gather lilies.” (Song 6:2, NIV)
Solomon: “You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride;
you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates
with choice fruits,
with henna and nard,
nard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon,
with every kind of incense tree,
with myrrh and aloes
and all the finest spices.” (Song 4:12-14, NIV)

These many pleasures have deadly undertones.

The fourth and final bedpost of the Seductress is seductive speech itself: the wily words which lure the foolish man to his death.

With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. (Prov 7:21)

In Solomon’s life, it’s the Lebanese Bride who delivers these alluring invitations:

“Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind!
Blow upon my garden
that its fragrance may be wafted abroad.
Let my beloved come to his garden,
and eat its choicest fruits.” (Song 4:16)

Solomon gleefully, and yet fatefully, dives in.

I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh with my spice (Song 5:1)

Relevantly, the Song of Songs is also presented as a chiasm (Figure 2), just as the book of Ruth is, and the comparison with Ruth’s chiasm is striking.

The symbolic pictures of Wisdom and the Seductress are matched by the real-life Bible characters of Ruth and the Lebanese Bride. We’ve been catapulted from the symbolic world into reality.

Thus, at the beginning of Proverbs, Solomon poses an eternal, if ethereal, question: “Will you marry Wisdom or Hedonism?” This challenges every human to unflinchingly examine their purpose in life. Proverbs is followed by Ruth and the Song of Songs (in the original Jewish ordering of scrolls), in which the two possible answers are displayed.

Hence the deep irony. Solomon grew up learning about his faithful and spiritually powerful great-great-grandmother Ruth. He is thereby enabled to challenge everyone to pursue Lady Wisdom as their appropriate life partner, which he does in the opening verses of Proverbs.¹² Yet in his life he did the precise reverse! He flings himself into a feeding frenzy of carnal pleasure with so many women they can barely be counted;¹³ chief of whom, per his Song of Songs, was the nameless Lebanese Bride. It’s a failure (and a hypocrisy if Proverbs was already written) of gargantuan proportion.

Opposing Leading Ladies

Wisdom and the Seductress are both Leading Ladies, but they lead towards opposing destinations: Heaven and Hell, if you will. The two books in which their real-life versions are presented are both chiasms, which provokes us to compare them. When we lay them alongside each other, we see something astonishing, and which I believe confirms the veracity of this analysis beyond a reasonable doubt (Figure 3).

The two chiasms are perfectly mirrored opposites!

Both chiasms contain the same eight elements, which form four couplets. They are these:

• Entering God’s city Jerusalem, or departing from it

• A spirit of joy and plenty, or a spirit of famine and loss

• A relationship gaining a godly husband, or being bereaved of one

• The godly directing those who don’t know God, or vice versa

The pairs in either chiasm (linked by the vertical arrows) are also mirror opposites to the parallel component in the other chiasm (linked by the horizontal arrows). Both chiasms also group all the positives together on one arm, and all the negatives on the other. This means that the first half of the story is either wholly positive or wholly negative, and the second half of the story is the opposite. In both cases the mood of the story flips 180° around the fulcrum, the central element. I find this perfect symmetry and anti-symmetry frankly stunning; inseparably linking the Stories of the Leading Ladies Ruth and the Lebanese Bride.

The important message the whole pattern bears is centered on the two fulcrums, which are spiritual union and sexual union. These fulcrums are essentially the ‘God’ of each story; or more accurately the life purpose (raison d’être) of the story’s leading character. Spiritual union with God is the perfect raison d’être and Ruth chooses it. Her choice flips the direction of her life from the axis of tragedy on which she was trapped, to an axis of glory on which her story triumphantly finishes. Solomon’s story shows the exact opposite. His life was one of unbridled luxury and privilege – even spiritually, with David as his father and God committed to loving him – and it ran along the most glorious axis of all. Yet his god became Hedonism. Sexual union is not being denounced in the Song per se. It’s being revealed as a disastrous choice of god. As a raison d’être it is wholly inadequate. So when Solomon installs Hedonism as his new god, his life trajectory is flipped from the axis of glory we see in the Song’s first half, to the axis of tragedy by which the melody trails away to its final verse; the final verse in which the Lebanese Bride calls him to flee God’s chosen city to play on the mountains of pleasures.

“Who will you marry?” challenges Solomon. Lady Wisdom or the Seductress? His challenge is reminiscent of that of Moses, so many years before.

“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” (Deut 30:19, NIV)

To choose Life is to choose Lady Wisdom. And live.