One member of the alphabetic poem of praise, Proverbs 31:10–31: a hymn, not a checklist.
Quick answer
She tastes her own work and finds it good, and her lamp burns into the night. The letter pairs earned confidence with the effort that keeps earning it.
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 poem's moment of self-assessment, and it runs opposite to false modesty: she "perceives that her merchandise is good," tests her own product and trusts the verdict. The poem sees no vice in a woman knowing her work is excellent; the knowing is part of the excellence. The burning lamp completes the picture, and in the ancient household a lamp kept lit through the night was both literal diligence and a standing image of a thriving house (the wicked man's lamp, by contrast, goes out, 13:9, 24:20). Hers stays lit because she keeps it lit: prosperity in this poem is never weather, it is tended flame.
Related: Proverbs 13:9 · Matthew 25:3–4
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.