What's your impression of this Bible Verse? Proverbs 30:23?

Question

Here is the verse in context for Proverbs 30:23

20 "This is the way of an adulteress:
She eats and wipes her mouth
and says, 'I've done nothing wrong.'

21 "Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:

22 a servant who becomes king,
a fool who is full of food,

23 an unloved woman who is married,
and a maidservant who displaces her mistress.

What do you think this verse refers to by the unloved woman who is married (see the previous verses).
I'd like to get others' thoughts on these verses. Thanks!

Here is the link to this chapter in Bible Gateway.org

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs%2030;&version=31;

Answer 1

The writer was speaking about things that go against the natural course of life. They are things that make life on earth shaky. A servant that becomes a king may become corrupted by the power he now holds. The fool full of food is a glutton. If he is rich enough to fill his belly, he is probably important to others around him who hang on his every word. Not a man to follow, if he is a fool. A woman that is married and unloved is not likely to be happy. This unhappiness spreads to her children. The tension between parents is bound to effect their adult lives and that spreads from generation to generation. And lastly, the displaced maidservent is without work. In those days a maidservent lived in the home of her mistress. To be displaced left her homeless and vunerable. I hope this helps.

Answer 2

You asked a good question. Here are a couple of thoughts: 1. We feel that anyone who asks a question wants to know the why, as well as the what, of an answer. It isn't enough to say "Yes, Jesus did this and that" without giving a reference. This chapter and verse would also tell you, or anyone else who may be interested, the details and context behind the story. By the way, you would be surprised how many people will take a verse or paragraph completely out of context and try to make it say something completely different than what the author or speaker intended it to be. 2. There's another reason we give Bible verses, and not just to fill space. Granted, and as I stated above, we want to give the complete story. But the other reason is that this may stimulate your thinking. The Bible has much to offer: words of wisdom, peace, philosophy, and even eternal life. I've read of Russian and even Red Chinese officials who, professing to be atheistic, took pride in owning and reading the Bible!

Answer 3

I think you need to look at verses 21-23 together and not relate it to verse 20.

I think he is referring to things that are mind-boggling: He does the same thing in verses 18-19. Remember the physics of flight was not known then so it must have been mind-boggling to them then. It is actually quite amazing to imagine yourself in that time seeing birds flying but not knowing how.

But maybe more than just-mind-boggling in ver. 21-23, he is also talking about tough situations that are difficult to grapple with. And one of these situations is a woman who is married by someone who should really love her and yet he does not. At that time, that was a big deal. Today, it is not. I guess back then people were shocked if a woman was married and unhappy because her hubby didn't love her. I think he is expressing how unbearable it is for a woman to be in such a situation that the "earth trembles". It must have sucked. Today, even if you love her, she can still run off with the gardener. How things have changed.

Anyway, I think it is really an issue about a woman being in that unfortunate situation where she is unloved and yet she wants to give her all to make a happy home.

Answer 4

It is not wise for a woman to be unpleasant, and repulsive, in doing such things she is hated. It is worse when she is married and continues to do so. It causes her to be unloved by her husband. It puts a strain on the marriage, a strain that is not intended to be in a marriage, and is cause for the earth to tremble.
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An ill-natured, cross-grained, woman, when she gets a husband, one who, having made herself odious by her pride and sourness, so that one would not have thought any body would ever love her, yet, if at last she be married, that honourable estate makes her more intolerably scornful and spiteful than ever. It is a pity that that which should sweeten the disposition should have a contrary effect. A gracious woman, when she is married, will be yet more obliging.
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A hateful woman has just married a man. But after she marries, she is still hateful. Her attitudes are wrong. She is a bad wife for her husband. And she will be a poor mother to her children.
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. An odious - Proud, and perverse. Married - For then she displays all those ill humours, which before, she concealed. Is heir - Which great and sudden change transports her beside herself, and makes her insufferably proud and scornful.

Answer 5

Actually my NKJV reads a little differently.

Proverbs 30:23;
A hateful woman when she is married,
And a maidservant who succeeds her mistress.

There could be a connection here, the woman could be hateful because she is unloved.

I think it has to do with being married to a man that did not love, honor and respect her.

I do not think this passage has anything to do with sex.
Women have a way of knowing if a man deeply cares for her or if they are just using her for their own enjoyment.

What say ye?

grace2u

Answer 6

KJV reads different but is a little clearer.

Proverbs 30:20-23, "Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness. For three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which it cannot bear: For a servant when he reigneth; and a fool when he is filled with meat; For an odious woman when she is married; and an handmaid that is heir to her mistress."

Answer 7

Let's see... modernized, it would look like this...

20: The adulteress does many foul things and thinks that she's done nothing wrong,

21: There are four things that is an abomination on this earth.

22: A person of low ranking who takes over the high ranking.
A moron who is rich and well fed.

23: A marriage with no love.
And a girl who entices the husband of another.


Unloved woman who is married? A woman who is married, but her husband has no love for her at all.

Answer 8

Thats a good question. Have u tried checking other translations?

Just remember that a lot of the Bible, like the psalms and proverbs, are personal feelings of the writers, and not commandments or values laid down by the Lord.

Answer 9

The Israelites were a patriarchal society. A man could divorce a woman but a woman could not divorce her husband. If a man was unloved, he could divorce the woman, but if a woman felt unloved, she was stuck.
Personally, I like verse 20. I know it is true. I have witnessed it firsthand...

Answer 10

I think verse 21 is the beginning of the thought, not verse 20. By stating unjust things we see what justice is. It is unjust for a woman to not be loved by her husband.