Proverbs 31:22 - Exposition

MEM . She maketh herself coverings of tapestry ( marbaddim ); as Proverbs 7:16 (where see note). Pillows for beds or cushions are meant, though the translators are not of one mind on the meaning. St. Jerome has, stragulatam vestem ; Aquila and Theodotion, περιστρώματα , Symmachus, ἀμφιτάπους , "shaggy on both sides;" Septuagint, "She makes for her husband double garments ( δισσὰς χλάινας )." Her clothing is silk and purple. שֵׁשׁ ( shesh ) is not "silk," but "white linen" ( βύσσος , byssus ) of very fine texture, and costly. Purple garments were brought from the Phoenician cities, and were highly esteemed (see So Proverbs 3:10 ; Jeremiah 10:9 ). The wife dresses herself in a way becoming her station, avoiding the extremes of sordid simplicity and ostentatious luxury. "For my own part," says St. Francois de Sales, quoted by Lesetre, "I should wish any devout man or woman always to be the best dressed person in the company, but at the same time, the least fine and affected, and adorned, as it is said, with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. St. Louis said that every one ought to dress according to his position, so that good and sensible people should not be able to say you are overdressed, nor the younger under dressed" ('Vie Devot.,' 3.25). So the Church is clothed in fine linen, clean and white, even the righteousness which Christ bestows ( Revelation 19:8 ), and invested in her Lord's royal robe, who hath made her children kings and priests unto God ( Revelation 1:6 ; Revelation 5:10 ).