Proverbs 31:24 - Exposition

SAMECH . She maketh fine linen, and selleth it. The word for "fine linen" is sadin, not the same as in Proverbs 31:22 . but equivalent to σινδών , and denoting linen garments; Delitzsch calls it "body linen" (comp. 14:12 , 14:13 ; Isaiah 3:23 ). Delivereth girdles unto the merchant; literally, unto the Canaanite ; i.e. the Phoenician merchant, a generic name for all traders (see Isaiah 23:8 ; Zechariah 14:21 ). Girdles were necessary articles of attire with the flowing robes of Eastern dress The common kind were made of leather, as is the use at the present day; but a more costly article was of linen curiously worked in gold and silver thread, and studded with jewels and gold (see 2 Samuel 18:11 ; Daniel 10:5 ). So Virgil ( AE neid,' 9.359) speaks of "aurea bullis cingula." We read of Queen Parysatis having certain villages assigned her for girdle money, εἰς ζώνην δεδομέναι (Xen; 'Anab.,' 1.4, 9). Cicero alludes to the same custom in his Verrine oration ( Proverbs 3:33 ): "Solere aiunt barbaros reges Persarum ac Syrorum plures uxores habere, his autem uxoribus civitates attribuere hocmodo: haec civitas mulieri iu redimiculum proebeat, haec in collum, haec in crines". Such rich and elaborately worked girdles the mistress could readily barter with Phoenician merchants, who would give in exchange purple ( Proverbs 31:22 ) and other articles of use or luxury. On this passage St. Gregory thus moralizes: "What is signified by a garment of fine linen, but the subtle texture of holy preaching? In which men rest softly, because the mind of the faithful is refreshed therein by heavenly hope. Whence also the animals are shown to Peter in a linen sheet, because the souls of sinners mercifully gathered together are enclosed in the gentle quiet of faith. The Church therefore made and sold this fine garment, because she inparted in words that faith which she had woven by belief; and received from unbelievers a life of upright conversation. And she delivered a girdle to the Canaanite, because by the might of the righteousness she displayed, she constrained the lax doings of the Gentile world, in order that that might be maintained in their doings which is commanded. 'Let your loins be girded about'" ('Moral.,' 33.33).