Polyglot Bible: Proverbs: Proverbs 31

This is a parallel critical edition of Proverbs 31 presented in four textual traditions simultaneously: the King James Version (with interlinear Strong's concordance numbers), the Septuagint (Greek), the Masoretic Hebrew, and the Latin Vulgate. The chapter divides into two distinct sections: a mother's counsel to King Lemuel warning against women, wine, and the corruption of justice (vv. 1–9), followed by the celebrated "Woman of Valor" poem (vv. 10–31), an acrostic in the Hebrew that portrays an ideal wife through her industrious household management, commerce, charity, and wisdom. The work's main interest is comparative-textual rather than interpretive — by printing the versions in columns, it invites close comparison of translational choices, such as the Septuagint's notable divergences (it reorders clauses, omits "fear of the LORD" in favor of "prudent woman," and addresses selling to "Canaanites" where others say "merchants"). The KJV's Strong's numbers embedded inline are characteristic of study-Bible or concordance scholarship, marking this as a resource for word-level exegesis rather than devotional reading. The piece makes no original argument but implicitly claims that no single version is self-sufficient — the meaning of the text emerges from the interplay among traditions. Readers interested in biblical textual criticism, translation history, or the reception of the Eshet Chayil passage across Jewish and Christian canons will find it directly useful.

Polyglot Bible: Proverbs: Proverbs 31

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