One member of the alphabetic poem of praise, Proverbs 31:10–31: a hymn, not a checklist.
Quick answer
She manufactures and sells: linen garments to buyers, sashes wholesale to the merchants. The household runs a surplus, and she runs the business that sells 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 completed economic arc. The wool and flax sought in v. 13 have passed through the spindle of v. 19 and emerged here as finished goods moving to market, and the scale has grown: not only retail garments but sashes supplied to merchants, product entering the trade streams her ships-simile (v. 14) hinted at. The poem's woman is producer, manufacturer, and vendor, and the acrostic records her commerce as praise, one more letter in the alphabet of valor. Any reading of this poem that shrinks her to the kitchen has simply not read the poem; the text itself keeps opening shop.
Related: Proverbs 31:14 · Acts 16:14
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.