One member of the alphabetic poem of praise, Proverbs 31:10–31: a hymn, not a checklist.
Quick answer
When she speaks, wisdom comes out, and the standing rule of her tongue is kindness. The poem's woman is a teacher, and her speech carries the whole book's two treasures at once.
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 her voice, and the poem has saved it deliberately for the crescendo letters. After fields, ships, spindles, and commerce, the acrostic reveals that the household's economy was never her deepest work: she opens her mouth with wisdom, the exact activity this entire book performs, and "the law of kindness" governs her tongue, instruction and warmth fused into one register. She is Proverbs' own project embodied, wisdom taught in a voice that makes it receivable, and the mother's counsel that opened this chapter (31:1) suddenly looks like this verse in action. The book that began with a father's lectures closes honoring a woman whose teaching is law in her house, and the law is kindness.
Related: Proverbs 16:21 · Proverbs 15:4 · Titus 2:3–5
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.