Favour [is] deceitful, and beauty [is] vain: [but] a woman [that] feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
Ver. 30. Favour is deceitful.] Some marry by their eyes, and some by their fingers' ends. Dos, non Deus, makes such marriages, but they commonly prove unhappy. There is esh, esh, fire, fire, of debate and discord between that ish and ishah, that man and wife, where Jah is not the matchmaker, as the Cabbalists have collected. Favour will fade, and beauty wither; a herd of pox will mar the fairest face, and of a Nireus make a Thersites. Forma bonum fragile est, saith one poet; a Res est forma fugax, saith another. b But better than they both the prophet Isaiah, "All flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of the field." All these outward accoutrements are non tantum fallacia quia dubia, verum etiam insidiosa quia dulcia, saith Lactantius; because there is no trusting to them, so there is great danger in them, as Absalom and his sister Tamar found in their beauty.
But a woman that feareth the Lord.] That is indeed the crown of all commendation, as that which makes one "all glorious within," amiable and admirable beyond belief. Nicostratus, in Aelian, himself being a cunning artisan, finding a curious piece of work, and being wondered at by one, and asked what pleasure he could take to stand gazing as he did on the picture, answered, Hadst thou mine eyes thou wouldst not wonder, but rather be ravished as I am at the inimitable art of this rare piece. So if men had saints' eyes to see the beauty of holiness, the excellency of the new creature, they would prize and prefer it before the shining rubbish of all earth's beauty and bravery. But as Augustus, in his solemn feasts, gave to some gold, to others gauds and trifles, so doth God to some give his fear, to others beauty, wealth, honour, and with these they rest contented. But what saith the Psalmist? "The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Sion," - q.d., The blessings that come out of Sion are choice blessings, even above any that come out of heaven and earth.
She shall be praised.] Shall live and die with honour. The body of honour is virtue, the soul of it humility. Whosoever rises without the one, or stands without the other, embraces but the shadow of a shadow; may be notable or notorious, cannot be truly noble.
a Ovid.
b Seneca.