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Challenging Gender Norms: The Masculine Power of Proverbs 31’s Woman of Valor

Editor’s note: This article is a 2024 CBE Writing Contest honorable mention. Enjoy!

Deep down, I have always known that I am not the type of girl my religious tradition appreciated. There was just something other women appeared to have that I could not find no matter how hard I searched. I really tried to be like these other girls. I changed my personality, doing everything I could to fit in and become the biblical woman and feminine nurturer that my culture lifted up as praiseworthy. It never worked. I was too assertive and took up too much space. I was too “masculine” in my interests, education, and ministry gifting.

“A woman should be feminine, nurturing, and gentle!” I was told. But I didn’t fit the bill. I liked girly clothes well enough, but my personality was wrong: type A, driven, opinionated, straight to the point, assertive, and educated. I stood in contrast to the “correct” personality of a truly godly girl: pliable, accommodating, quiet, supportive, unambitious, domestic, and demure.^[1]

Sure, those around me would acknowledge that strong women were found in Scripture, but we were never encouraged to emulate those types of women. Instead, we were instructed that a woman should be a homemaker (Titus 2; Proverbs 31) with a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4, NIV). At best, women with big, bold personalities were appreciated for their service, while existing alongside the subtle implication that they did not embody God’s best design for women. At worst, they were considered dangerous, suspect, and unsubmissive.

The differences between men and women were considered hard and fast rules by the teachers and preachers I respected.^[2] A woman should not come across as masculine in her appearance, temperament, or gifting. She must be obviously and compellingly feminine.^[3]

Since I did not conform with these ideals, my chest tightened every time I thought about Proverbs 31—the Bible passage used as a checklist for a godly woman. A flood of shame would keep me from engaging with the passage. However, when I was finally able to immerse myself in this passage, God surprised me with his delight in women like me—women who are strong, assertive, and bold. When I dove into the Hebrew poetry and historical context of Proverbs 31, God revealed an image of womanhood that looked little like the cultural femininity of my childhood.

Enter the Woman of Valor

In contrast to the cultural milieu of my past, the Hebrew text of Proverbs 31 repeatedly emphasizes the woman’s strength and tenacity by using terms that are overtly masculine.

“A woman of valor, who will find?
Far above pearls is her price.” (Proverbs 31:10)^[4]

“Numerous daughters do valiantly,
And you, yourself, rise above all of them!” (Proverbs 31:29)

The Hebrew word chayil (valor) is typically translated as “noble character” (NIV, CSB), “excellent” (NASB20, LSB, ESV, AMP), “worth” (YLT), “virtuous” (KJV, NLT), or “worthy” (ASV, HNV). Each of these various translations capture this woman’s value and character, but they fail to convey the military overtone of the text’s description.

In the Hebrew Bible, chayil is used as a military term an overwhelming majority of the time (172 times out of 242). It is used to denote wealth (34 times), efficiency/skill to do a task (12 times), general strength (5 times), and power/influence (4 times). Though Proverbs 31 does not describe an actual battle scene, the passage uplifts the Woman of Valor with the same language as war heroes.^[5] This powerful language draws attention to her competence, skill, physical strength, tenacity, energy, and wealth.^[6]

Outside of Proverbs 12:4; 31:10 and 29, the only other time the Hebrew Bible uses “valor” (chayil) to describe a woman occurs within the story of Ruth (3:11).^[7] The other 238 times “valor” (chayil) appears in the Hebrew Bible, it describes men. Therefore, Scripture compliments the Woman of Valor in a decidedly masculine tone. She is a woman in every way, but “a woman of this caliber had all the attributes of her male counterpart.”^[8] She does not hide her fierceness or her strength in order to make the men in her community more comfortable. In fact, her strength, power, and valor are specifically pointed out by God as good.

The masculine, war-themed language continues in Proverbs 31:11, “Trust in her does the heart of her husband, and spoil he will not be without.” The term “spoil” (shalal) describes plunder taken in battle.^[9] This, “military metaphor implies that the woman has to win the essentials like food and clothing through strategy, timely strength and risk in this fallen world.”^[10] The author of the passage does not view her tasks as easy or simply “women’s work,” as the colloquialism goes. Instead, he compares the results of her labor to bounty brought back by men from battle.

In verse 15, the depiction shifts slightly, while still communicating the same weight as the previous masculine, war imagery. While the description in verses 10–11 is of a heroic warrior bringing home plunder for her family, now the picture shifts to that of a lioness sharing her kill with her pride.^[11] “And then she rises while it is still night, and gives prey to her house, and portions to her maidens.” The Woman of Valor provides “prey” (terph) for her household.^[12] The use of “prey” rather than “bread” or “food” “gives [the verse] overtones of aggression.”^[13] The Woman of Valor is a force with whom one must reckon. She is not passive and does not limit herself to background tasks.

Masculine, military language continues in the description of the Woman of Valor’s work in verse 17: “She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms mighty.” This phrase is another example of overtly masculine tones, and most translations of this verse fail to recognize the significance therein.^[14] In describing the Woman of Valor’s preparation for work with the phrase “girds her loins,” the author of Proverbs 31 places the Woman of Valor’s labor on the same level and importance as that of men since this phrase is only used to describe male labor in the Hebrew Bible.^[15] The Woman of Valor does not go about her tasks diminutively or quietly, as I was taught a woman should do. She rather, with the confidence of a military hero or lioness, exercises her authority and power in her community and family.^[16]

An overview of Proverbs 31 reveals that the Woman of Valor does not work in the distinctly “feminine way”^[17] that many modern women were taught to emulate.^[18] Rather, she works vigorously—doing tasks in male dominated spaces, all without losing her womanhood. She does business at the city gate to buy property (v. 16),^[19] manages her own money and property (vv. 16, 18, 24), and employs men in building projects (v. 16).^[20] None of these male activities diminish the Woman of Valor’s womanhood. In fact, she is praised and held up as an example because of them!

The Woman of Valor Provides a Counterpoint to So-Called Biblical Femininity

A close study of the Woman of Valor in Proverbs 31 challenges our conceptions of what it means to be a woman. Many of the verses in this chapter have strong masculine overtones which transgress the boundaries of typical gender characteristics and roles.

In summary, Proverbs 31 presents a fierce image of womanhood foreign to our modern perceptions of radically feminine, soft, gentle, and nurturing “Biblical womanhood.” This passage uses overtly masculine language to describe the Woman of Valor, teaching that Biblical womanhood does not have to look markedly different in personality or gifting from Biblical manhood. God delights in women who are heroic, strong, brave, tenacious, and warlike. These women are to be praised (Proverbs 31:30–31).

As a woman who has often been told (both implicitly and explicitly) that I was too much, too direct, too bold, too “manly,” the language of Proverbs 31 is a balm to my soul. Once I saw Proverbs 31 through a culturally informed lens, I could truly understand that God values strong, warrior-like women.

And, let me be clear! There is nothing wrong with women whose personalities naturally lean toward being feminine, nurturing, sweet, and gentle. But this is a love letter to those women who do not. It is a reminder to everyone that God values all types of women.

God delights in women who are strong, ferocious, prophetic, wise, ambitious, and daring. He loves women who fear him and shake up the world for his glory. God never wants us to hide who he made us to be. Yes, he transforms the sinful parts of our natural bents and personalities, but he does not want us to mask the “manly” traits that he placed in our very beings. These characteristics that, though stereotypically attributed to men, are not actually purely male in nature. Instead, they are genderless qualities which describe God’s work on behalf of his people. We as women reflect not men in our boldness and strength, but rather our creator.

1. Many of these descriptors come directly from the perceptions of many women in my online community as they have shared their thoughts and what they were taught with me.

2. According to John Piper, “…there are profound differences in the very nature of manhood and womanhood. Those differences in the unique essence of manhood and the unique essence of womanhood were designed by God in creation and were the foundation for why God assigned the differing roles that he did.” (John Piper, “Is Complementarity Merely Functional?” on the Desiring God website, published November 12, 2021, https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/is-complementarity-merely-functional )

3. “When we forsake our feminine glory in pursuit of the uniqueness that belongs to men, we abandon our God-given glory; we become usurpers, persistently insisting that our uterus and biology are equal to nothing, irrelevant. Women believe the lie that in order to be relevant in a man’s world, you become like a man, when the opposite is true.” (Abigail Dodds, “The Beauty of Womanhood: Her Uniqueness Makes Her Essential,” Desiring God website, published April 19, 2016, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-beauty-of-womanhood).

4. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are the author’s own.

5. Bernardita Dianzon, “Proverbs 30:10-31 A Laudatio Funebris?” Landas 17:1 (2003): 68, EBSCOhost.

6. Michael V. Fox, Proverbs 10–31: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (New Haven & London: The Anchor Yale Bible, 2009): v. 10, Theology and Religion Online. Web. 2 May 2023. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780300262124.0008.CH011>; Bruce K. Waltke, The Book of Proverbs, Chapters 15–31 (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005): v. 10.

7. In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Ruth follows immediately after Proverbs. This creates a thematic flow from the Woman of Valor in Proverbs 31 to the great-grandmother of King David, Ruth.

8. Carl Philip Weber, “624 חוּל,” Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke (Moody Press, 1999), 272.

9. Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 1531; See M. Beth Szlos, “A Portrait of Power: A literary-critical Study of the Depiction of the Woman in Proverbs 31:10-31,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review no 54.1-2 (2000): 102, EBSCOhost.

10. Walke, The Book of Proverbs, v. 11.

11. See Fox, Proverbs 31:10-31, v. 15 and Walke, The Book of Proverbs, v. 15.

12. Koehler, HALOT.

13. Fox, Proverbs 31:10-31, v. 15.

14. Other translations obscure the masculine overtones of this verse by focusing on her dressing herself (ESV) and her vigorous work (NIV). They likely do this in order to help the modern audience understand the obscure phrase “girds her loins.”

15. Other places where “gird your loins” is used are Exodus 12:11; 2 Samuel 20:8; 1 Kings 20:32; 2 Kings 4:29; 9:1; Ezekiel 44:18; Daniel 10:5. The Exodus reference might include both genders, but the rest are all speaking about the actions of a man.

16. Discussing similar imagery, Carol Meyers argues, from the text of Song of Songs, that the “reversing of conventional or transitional gender imagery” could be an indication of the feminine authority and power in the “mother’s house” (bet ‘am)—in the “internal world of Israelite households, where women exercised strong and authoritative positions.” (Carol Meyers, “Gender Imagery in the Song of Songs,” The Feminist Companion to the Bible: A Feminist Companion to the Song of Songs, Sheffield Academy Press (1993): 218, 221, accessed, 8/22/24, https://core.ac.uk/reader/159572290)

17. “It’s not merely physical attributes that make us male and female. Femininity goes much deeper than what we see in the mirror. God created us with roles and instincts that are distinctly feminine.” (Trillia Newbell, “The Feminine Focus,” Designed for Joy: How the Gospel Impacts Men and Women, Identity and Practice, eds. Jonathan Parnell & Owen Strachan (Crossway, 2015): 53-54, https://document.desiringgod.org/designed-for-joy-en.pdf?ts=1446647029 ).

18. Mary A. Kassian, “Strong as a Woman” on the Desiring God website, published August 1, 2020: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/strong-as-a-woman.

19. Many business transactions, especially property transfer, took place in the city gate (Ruth 4:1-12). In order to buy property in Israel, a woman would likely have needed to do business with the men at the gate. This is a distinct difference from the judicial and political role her husband likely held in the gate (Proverbs 31:23), especially if he was of the royal class or a king (Proverbs 31:1).

20. In order to plant a vineyard much work needs to be done to prepare the ground and make it safe. walls commonly surrounded vineyards (Isaiah 5:5; Matthew 21:33). The Woman of Valor would have likely hired male labor to build the wall and do the work of preparing the ground and planting the vines under her direction. (See Walke, The Book of Proverbs, v. 16).