Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price [is] far above rubies.
Ver. 10. Who can find a virtuous woman?] Good wives are rare commodities, and therefore precious and highly to be prized, even above rubies. The Hebrews put rarum pro charo, as in 1Sa 3:1 Proverbs 25:7; "Let thy feet be precious in thy neighbour's house" - that is, let them seldom come there, lest thou become overcheap and undervalued. a It is easy to observe that the New Testament affords more store of good women than the Old. When Paul came first to Philippi, few or none came to hear him but women, Act 6:13 but they drew on their husbands, and it soon became a famous church. What a rare piece was Priscilla, who better instructed Apollos, ventured her life for Paul, Rom 16:4 and was such a singular help to her husband that she is mentioned before him as the more forward of the two. Rom 16:3 Like as was also Manoah's wife, Jdg 13:24-25 and Nazianzen's mother. Solomon's mother was behind none of them, as appears by this poem, either composed by Solomon as a character of her, as some have thought, or else by herself, for his direction in the choice of a good wife, which would be worthy his pains, though he should fetch her as far as men do rubies - procul prae unionibus precium eius. What a way sent Abraham and Isaac for good wives for their sons!
a σπανια σπουδαια. - Arist. Ethic.