It is better to live in a desert land
than with a quarrelsome and fretful woman. -- Proverbs 21:19
A continual dripping on a rainy day
and a quarrelsome wife are alike;
to restrain her is to restrain the wind
or to grasp oil in one's right hand. -- Proverbs 27:15-16
Next time someone tells you that the Bible is "full of errors", offer these verses as proof of the infallibility of Scripture. Of course, there are also verses in Proverbs in praise of wise and virtuous women, and it says that "he who finds a wife finds a good thing". Certainly we can agree with that.
Women are generally better than men, and even a "quarrelsome and fretful" woman may not be necessarily evil, just a disturber of the peace. Men get their share of grief from the wise for drunkenness, gullibility, lust, violence, greed, etc. Men are more often jokers, smokers, and midnight tokers, to quote Steve Miller. Can we truly give much credence to Solomon's comprehension of the feminine? After all, a man who really understood women would never have more than one wife. Ever. With three hundred running around, no wonder the man dreaded quarrels.
By the way, the biggest laugh I ever got in church was when I read Proverbs 27:15 during a Sunday School lesson one morning, paused, looked up at the audience, and said, "Drip ... drip ... drip." My pastor's wife, usually a very sedate and elegant lady, was doubled over in her pew. I still have no idea why.
6 comments:
I wouldn't touch this topic with a ten zereth pole.
By the way, oh Bible scholar, do you happen to know when the transition from polygamy to monogamy took place with the Jews?
I suppose I could look it up but if you already knew...
No, I don't know. It's a good question.
Off the top of my head, I would say polygamy probably was on the decline after the return from the Babylonian Exile -- just from economic pressure.
It may have still been somewhat acceptable if not condoned in the New Testament era. Paul famously gives one of the qualifications of a deacon being "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:12).
That has been interpreted as being someone who was not divorced and remarried, and, even more strictly, as disqualifying a man who had married a divorced woman. A reasonable reading without an agenda would understand it as more than one wife at a time.
Now you know why I have a screen name. I'm not worried about the government finding out who I am nearly as much as having my wife find out.
Pretty good job of covering your tracks, but the cat might be out of the bag.
lol
I don't know if I agree about women being better than men, though.
The cat has left the building.
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