Proverbs 31:14 - Exposition

HE . She is like the merchants' ships. She is like them in that she extends her operations beyond her own immediate neighbourhood, and bringeth her food from afar, buying in the best markets and on advantageous terms, without regard to distance, and being always on the look out to make honest profit. Septuagint, "She is like a ship trading from a distance, and she herself gathereth her livelihood.'' The expressions in the text point to active commercial operations by sea as well as land, such as we know to have been undertaken by Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and others ( 1 Kings 9:26 ; 1 Kings 22:48 ), and such as the Hebrews must have noticed in the Phoenician cities, Sidon and Tyre.