Our next study in the Wednesday evening adult Bible class will be the book of Ruth. In recent reading for this class, I ran across an interesting item in a reference book I sometimes use. It had the above title.

Since we are using Proverbs 31 in our Sunday morning sermon series on the "Essential Building Blocks of Marriage", I liked how these two studies intersected. Below is the article as found on page 373 of the MacArthur's Study Bible.

The "virtuous" wife of Proverbs 31:10 is personified by "virtuous" Ruth of whom the same Hebrew word is used (3:11). With amazing parallel, they share at least eight character traits (see below). One wonders (in concert with Jewish tradition) if King Lemuel's mother might not have been Bathsheba, who orally passed the family heritage of Ruth's spotless reputation along to David's son Solomon. Lemuel, which means devoted to God", could have been a family name for Solomon (cf. Jedediah, 2 Sam. 12:25), who then could have penned Prov. 31:10-21 with Ruth in mind Each woman was:

  1. Devoted to her family (Ruth 1:15-18; Prov. 31:10-12, 23)

  2. Delighting in her work (Ruth 2:2; Prov. 31:13)

  3. Diligent in her labor (Ruth 2:7, 17, 23; Prov. 31:14-18, 19-21, 24, 27)

  4. Dedicated to godly speech (Ruth 2:10, 13; Prov. 31:26)

  5. Dependent on God (Ruth 2:12; Prov. 31:25b, 30)

  6. Dressed with care (Ruth 3:3; Prov. 31:22, 25a)

  7. Discreet with men (Ruth 3:6-13; Prov. 31:11, 12, 23)

  8. Delivering blessings (Ruth 4:14, 15; Prov. 31:28, 29, 31)

There many threads of rich study woven into the four chapters of this book about this Moabite woman. I am looking forward to it.