Proverbs 31:24

fine linen Rather, linen garments. The word, which is not the same as that rendered fine linenin Proverbs 31:22, denotes not the material but a made-up garment, σινδόνας LXX.; sindonem, Vulg. It is rendered sheets, A.V., but linen garments, R.V., in Judges 14:12-13, where it is described in the note in this Series as "a wide flowing under-garment of linen, worn next the body." See Isaiah 3:23.

girdles These were often richly worked and very valuable. See 1 Samuel 18:4; 2 Samuel 18:11.

the merchant Lit. the Canaanite (as in Job 41:6 [Heb. 40:30]; Isaiah 23:8), because the Canaanites were the great merchants of the time. See note in this Series on Zechariah 14:21.

This verse adds as it were the finishing stroke to the picture. While all home duties in every relation, to her husband, her children, her servants, and to the poor around her, are fully and faithfully discharged, she is yet able to increase her store by the sale of what the industry of herself and her maidens has produced. At the same time it throws an interesting light upon the state of society, in which the mistress of a large household and the wife of one who took his place "among the elders of the land" did not think it unworthy of her to engage in honest trade.