One member of the alphabetic poem of praise, Proverbs 31:10–31: a hymn, not a checklist.
Quick answer
The people who know her best go on record: her children rise and call her blessed, and her husband stands to praise her. The poem's praise moves from the narrator's mouth into her own house.
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 witnesses, and their credentials are the point. Children and husband have seen the woman of every previous letter at close range, in the pre-dawn kitchen and the unglamorous hours, and their verdict is the strong one: they rise up, the posture of formal honor, to bless and praise her. The poem knows the world's praise usually goes to the visible and the distant; it stages the rarer thing, honor from the people for whom you are most ordinary. The verse also turns quietly toward the reader as instruction hiding in description: such women exist near you, and rising up to say so is how this poem expects to be used.
Related: Proverbs 31:31 · Proverbs 17:6
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.