One member of the alphabetic poem of praise, Proverbs 31:10–31: a hymn, not a checklist.
Quick answer
Up before the sun, she feeds her household, and her maidservants' portion is named with everyone else's. The letter praises a strength that starts early and feeds downward.
Read the whole unit
The book closes with a 22-verse acrostic, one verse for each Hebrew letter, aleph to tav, the way love makes lists, so that when the alphabet runs out you know nothing was left unsaid. The poem stands immediately after a mother's counsel to a king (31:1–9). Whether or not the mother is also the poem's speaker, its placement trains the reader, men included, to recognize and praise wisdom embodied in a woman.
Its subject is an eshet chayil, a woman of strength, capability, and valor. Chayil is a broad Hebrew word for strength, capability, resources, and standing, frequently used of warriors and capable people, and the poem inventories her formidable agency: commerce, agriculture, management, generosity, foresight, teaching, and laughter at the future. Its climax states the governing center: a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised (v. 30). Praised, not scored. This is a hymn of honor, not a weekly job description, and every member entry carries that frame, because the checklist misreading is this poem's one great occupational hazard.
What this verse contributes
This verse contributes the pre-dawn hour, and one easily missed mercy. Rising "while it is yet night" is the poem's picture of ownership: the household's day begins because she began it. But the line the poet made sure to include is the last one: a portion for her maidservants. The women who serve her eat from the same planning as the family she serves, provision running all the way down the household's ranks. The poem's woman commands staff and feeds them, and in that small clause the acrostic shows its ethics: her strength is measured, as this whole book measures strength, by what it does for the people under it.
Related: Proverbs 27:23–27 · Proverbs 31:21
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.