Proverbios 12:4

4 La mujer virtuosa es corona de su marido; mas la mala, como carcoma en sus huesos

Proverbios 12:4 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 12:4

A virtuous woman [is] a crown to her husband
One that is loving and chaste, constant and faithful, obsequious and submissive to him; that is diligent in the affairs of her house, takes care of her family, brings up her children, and keeps up a good order and decorum among her servants, is an honour and credit to her husband. Such is the true church of Christ, who is compared to a woman, ( Revelation 12:1 ) ; to a woman of purity and chastity, whose members are virgins, not defiled with the corruptions, errors, and superstition of the apostate church; to a woman of fortitude and courage, as the word ^F13 signifies, who resists sin, temptation, error, heresy, and idolatry, even unto blood; and whose true members love not their lives unto death, but freely lay them down in the cause of truth; such an one is an honour to Christ her husband; but she that maketh ashamed;
makes her husband ashamed, by her levity and wantonness, her negligence and slothfulness, so that he is ashamed to be seen with her, or to be known that he stands in such a relation to her; she [is] as rottenness in his bones;
a constant grief to his mind, a pressure upon his spirits, a wasting of his body, and a consumption of his estate; she is, as the Targum has it, "as a worm in wood", which rots and consumes it ^F14; so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Thus the apostate church of Rome, that professes to be the spouse of Christ, has made him ashamed of her; as being the Jezebel, that seduces his servants to fornication or idolatry; and whose doctrine and superstition eat, like a canker, the vitals of religion.

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FOOTNOTES:

F13 (lyx tva) "mulier virtutis", Montanus, Vatablus; "uxor strenua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius; "mulier fortis", Pagninus, Gejerus.
F14 Such as are called Cossi, Tabani, Teredines, Thrypes; Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 1. c. 33. & l. 16. c. 41.

Proverbios 12:4 In-Context

2 El bueno alcanzará favor del SEÑOR; mas él condenará al hombre de malos pensamientos

3 El hombre no se afirmará por medio de la impiedad; mas la raíz de los justos no será movida

4 La mujer virtuosa es corona de su marido; mas la mala, como carcoma en sus huesos

5 Los pensamientos de los justos son rectitud; mas las astucias de los impíos, engaño

6 Las palabras de los impíos son para asechar la sangre; mas la boca de los rectos los librará